Lacrymosa
by cchampagnekisses
Summary: Caroline's parents can no longer handle her and send her away to live with her brother in London where she meets the very cocky Klaus Mikaelson, who seems to do whatever he wants with no repercussions.
1. Chapter 1

"Have you got everything?" Liz asked for the millionth time. I rolled my eyes but nodded. If she didn't let up I was gonna miss my flight. The flight she so desperately wanted to put me on. "Good. You know your father and I–"

"Are only doing this for my own good. Yes, mom. I know." I frowned.

I don't know what was wrong with me. Okay, so I knew why I was upset but literally any girl my age would gladly accept that her parents were shipping her off to London no matter the circumstances. I mean it's not like I'd be a total pariah all on my own in a foreign land. I'd be living with my big brother, Stefan. But then again I couldn't just conveniently forget that this was my parent's way of pawning off all their problems, me, on their prodigal son who'd luckily escaped the dysfunctional farce of their relationship a few years ago.

I'd never been my parent's favorite, they never had any time for me and we were never really close as a result. But after everything that happened with Damon…well lets just say I was downgraded from least favorite child to the barely tolerated offspring, losing my status as a child of theirs entirely. It wasn't hard to see how my parents blamed me for everything that happened. I didn't mind it much. I was a little busy throwing myself into my partying career. A little liquor here, a few joints there, I'd found the perfect cocktail to forget all my worries. When the loud thumping beat thrummed through me, jolting my consciousness back from floating away with the alcohol and drugs I could just be one with the party. I could be free. I didn't have to find new ways to cope with what I had done. As far as I was concerned all I had to do was live my life to the fullest by having fun. Living it up just so happened to help assuage my guilt. Granted it was because I couldn't feel anything, much less guilt, but that wasn't the point.

"Well, this is it then. Love you, Caroline." I stared blankly at her as she forced a smile onto her lips. I felt small prickles on the edge of my heart. Her smile hadn't been happy in at least a decade. There was too much sadness behind them, especially now.

"Ditto. Bye mom." I gave a small half-hearted wave and made my way to my terminal.

I did still have some time to kill, but wandering around the little delis and sitting in a hard plastic chair beat spending any time with my mother that wasn't absolutely necessary. Odds are she would have just made awkward small talk and assured me that I'd be ok with Stefan and that the time away would do us all some good.

When the plane finally did start boarding I was relieved that my parents had put me in the first row of seating. Granted they could've set up a private flight for me like they did for Stefan or at least let me buy my own ticket so that I could be in the comfort of first class but at least I could get off the plane without having to deal with too many cranky people on my way out.

Finding Stefan in the crowd of people was easy enough. He'd already found and retrieved my luggage for me and I don't think many men would be walking around with several bright teal suitcases. Especially not men in black leather jackets, black sunglasses, and wicked looking boots. I smirked when I saw him. His badass look was totally thrown off by the warm, loving smile he was giving me.

"Caroline!" he pulled me into a bear hug the second I was close enough. "You look so different, Carebear."

"Look who's talking." I smile my first real smile in months. Stefan was always able to dredge out the best in me, he didn't make me feel like the spawn of Satan like our parents did. He nudged me in the ribs gently.

"Come on, lets get you to your new home." I nodded appreciatively.

Stefan and I had always been close. Out of everyone in my family, he was my favorite. At 22 he was 3 years older than me, but I'd never really felt the age gap until he moved away to London. I'd hated him for a whole year after he'd left, which was a new record for me considering the longest I'd ever been able to stay mad at him up until then was only 35 minutes. I missed him dearly and felt so alone and sad being stuck with our family without him. But did he care? Nope. He'd just left me to move halfway around the world.

But he visited often and was eventually able to wear me down and talk to me about why I was conveniently never home when he was anymore. Big brother visits were considered family time but I'd always made an excuse to be somewhere else, anything to avoid the prick that'd left me. Anyway, once we'd talked it out and I realized I was being silly, he went back to being the only person in the family that I actually liked, despite his prodigal son status.

Despite the circumstances I was excited to be living in London with my big brother. I wanted to see what he'd made of himself. After he graduated valedictorian of his high school class my parents were dead set on shipping him off to some Ivy League. Yale was in our blood, for the past 5 generations, but they would have happily settled for Princeton. Stefan on the other and hadn't very much liked the idea. He'd told me he felt like he was trapped in a little box. He didn't want to go to college just to please them. It was considered the next logical step after high school, but his heart wasn't in it. He was getting crushed by a box of their making. So he skipped out on the whole college experience, moved out to England, and became a supervisor at some merchandising company. Now he'd worked his way up to CFO of said company and even did a bit of freelance modeling when he found the time. I was really proud of him.

The ride to his house wasn't very long, just a little bit of traffic. We caught up on a ton of things in the small span of time. He told me a little bit about the school I'd be going to. A two year 'Sixth Form' option for high school graduates where you can choose the classes you take. That's all I'd managed to catch of it anyway. I was more focused on being tourist-y and gazing out the window at interesting stuff, that and I was a little too focused on how wrong it felt to be on the left side of the road rather than the right.

"Are you excited to start?" he asked, pulling into a very modern-style apartment complex. Stefan got out the car and pulled some of my bags from the trunk. I took out the rest and followed him inside.

"Not really. I'm more excited to be done with it." I was honestly just biding my time until our parents were sufficiently satisfied that I had changed for the better. Then I'd collect my trust fund money and be done with them.

"Oh come on, look at it this way: you get out of college _and_ you get to be in England." I let a smile slip, conceding that he'd made some very good points. Like him I'd had no desire to go to college. I'd barely passed high school after everything that happened. It wasn't that I got bad grades its that I was just never in school. I spent my time partying hard. It just so happened that my recoveries usually happened during the school day.

"_And_ I get to be around hot British guys with their hot British accents." I nudged Stefan in the ribs playfully. Accents for me were like beer goggles, it helped that most foreign guys I'd come into contact with were hot but that wasn't the point. I was excited to begin partying with the best of them but judging by Stefan's disapproving grimace, I'd either have to hide it or not do it at all. Poor Steffy, older brother syndrome kicking in and I've only been here for like an hour.

Stefan's apartment was on the top floor and the elevator let out in a hallway where there were only two doors across the hall from each other. If Stefan bought out the apartment across the hall and then gotten permission from the super he could do some renovations it'd be a very plush penthouse. Stefan went to the one on the left and swiped his key through the reader. His apartment was very nice, if not a little too big for someone on his own. It had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen, a dining room, and a rather spacious living room, all decorated very modernly. It looked like something straight off of google.

"God, Stefan. Lux much?" he laughed, telling me that apparently his coworkers would disagree. While all this seemed very luxurious to me, they found it to be a downgrade from where he should be living.

"Here let me show you your room." Stefan walked down one of the hallways on the left side of the apartment and put my bags in front of the door at the very end. I gave him a hug and thanked him and he wandered off, promising to give me some time to settle in.

Taking a deep breath I opened the door to my new room, almost afraid of what I'd see. I'd always been one for bigger and brighter while Stefan was content with the simpler, more solid things. I say aqua Stefan says black, I say magenta, and Stefan says white. There was no winning.

The room was pretty nice though, I had a decently sized closet with sliding mirror doors, a full sized bed in the center with purple and white sheets and comforter, there was a flat screen tv docked on the wall directly across from the bed, and a desk off to the other side of the bed that already had a few books on it. The walls were a pleasant shade of purple with classic white moulding and a plush white carpet to match. She had an eyegasm just being in it.

Before allowing myself to enjoy any of it I set a schedule in my head. It should only take me about an hour or so to get all my clothes and essentials put away. There was even an en suite bathroom in the corner of the room. It was very simple but very pretty. Once unpacked and sufficiently settled I changed into more comfortable clothes. I went to find Stefan. It smelled like he'd already started on dinner. I closed my bedroom door behind me and followed the scent of sweet potatoes to the kitchen.

"Look at you being all domestic. What if you mess up your hair?" I slide into a barstool and watch him at work. It seemed like he'd actually grown to know his way around the kitchen. He was chopping up veggies like a pro and the steaks he was cooking looked like they had been perfectly prepped. He threw a carrot at me and resumed to spinning around the kitchen grabbing one thing or another. "Hey, Stefan, I just wanted to say thank you."

"For what?"

"For everything. For always being there for me. For taking me in after everything. And for treating me the same despite what happened. I mean if it weren't for you, mom and dad would have shipped me off somewhere else on my own. Anything to get rid of their out of control trouble child."

"You're not out of control Caroline. You and I both know how much you savor having control. You've just had a bad year. Anyone in your position would take it hard." He sighed. "Plus we both know our parents can barely handle their own troubles maturely and responsibly, and they know that too. They just did what they knew would be best for you, Care. You're not some burden, you're my baby sis. Besides I could use the company."

"Ah, so I take the broody loner thing carried over to England? There's no 'company' you have to speak of right now?"

"_So_ not going there with you, Ms. I'll-kiss-a-new-boy-every-day-to-piss-off-my-parents. But no, not right now anyway." I stared at him suspiciously. Stefan hadn't had a serious girlfriend in a while. Not since his awful high school sweetheart, Elena Gilbert. Even I thought they would last forever. She had us all snowed. He couldn't still be bent out of shape over her could he? "Anyway do you want to start as soon as possible or on Friday so you can have more time to get supplies and adjust to the city?"

Smooth topic change. I took the plate of food he handed me and shrugged. I wouldn't mind starting school on Friday. I did need to email my teachers and find out exactly what I'd need for their class and some time to relax in general. But since I'd already missed a week of classes, postponing it any further wasn't an option. I was way too far behind for my liking.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day my alarm clock started blaring at 8 am sharp, but it only lasted a minute or two. I'd been up since 7:45, getting ready for my first day of Sixth Form.

I fixed the duvet on my bed and went to the bathroom to touch up my hair. I'd already showered, brushed my teeth and hair, and applied my makeup for the day, but my curls had fallen a little flat after all the running around my room I'd done.

I'd dressed casually enough to be comfortable but also give good first impression, a navy blazer over a white blouse and a navy pleated skirt with black suede bootie wedges. I'd already packed a small canvas bag of notebooks and pens for school so the only thing left for me to do was fix my hair and grab some coffee before Stefan dropped me off.

When my parents disowned me and I lost the right to live in the states I also lost the right to my beautiful black Jeep convertible. Stefan's working on getting them to give it back to me. I figure he'll sell them some story about how I'm an adult and how he has a busy schedule and that the public transit here is expensive and unsafe, which I didn't know if that was really true, but for now he'd have to be my chauffeur. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the sixth form. I hesitated getting out of the car.

It looked like one of those stereotypical posh private schools that you read about in books or see in the movies. I idly wondered how many students actually went here. I only saw about two or three dozen loitering about the front lawn. I hugged Stefan and hopped out his car, eager to get this over with. If I were to be completely honest with myself I wasn't nervous. I didn't see any reason for me to be. New school? No problem. It's not like I was heading into a den of bloodthirsty vampires. It was just a collection of my peers. I strut to the main office, keeping my eyes forward and chin up.

"Hello, I'm Caroline Forbes. I'm here to pick up my schedule." I smiled at the front desk lady. She pushed a few forms over the desk for me to fill out. By the time I finished filling out all the forms she had found, copied, and given me my schedule. She gave me some quick directions to my first class and a pass for the teacher. I loathed that I was late on my first day after already missing a week of class. So not a good first example.

Lucky for me my first class was on the first floor of Building A, which was right across from the Admin Offices. The bell had already rang while I was in the office collecting my things, so I took a deep breath and entered the classroom with a slight knock. I handed him the pass from the secretary and stood there while he looked it over. The professor was middle aged and looked like he hadn't slept in three weeks. His brown hair was an absolute wreck, as though he ran his hands through it too much, and he had stubble that looked like it was about a week away from being a beard.

"Right then. Welcome. I'm Professor Saltzman. Why don't you take a seat next to Bonnie?" He pointed to a brunette at a desk near the front of the class. Mr. Saltzman returned his attention to something he'd been writing on the board before I walked in.

As I walked towards my seat I could hear a few people here and there whispering about me. _Did you hear her? She's American! _And then something about my crazy accent. I even heard a few of them trying to mimic it. It was kinda cute. I mean Americans do the same thing when they hear a British accent, you know when we're done swooning over it. It'd be a little weird hearing people point out my accent or the way I say certain things, but hey I don't mind that much.

"Now, I know this is Folklore and we'll be dealing with legends, mythology, folklore, fairytales, and all those lovely things. But first I'd like to backtrack a little and delve into the origins of most of these stories. We should get to the roots of the general topic before we go into subsections etcetera so I'm going to pass this around and you and your desk partner can look over it together. Got it? Good."

The girl next to me, Bonnie according to Mr. Saltzman, passed me the papers. She had smooth brown skin, long brunette hair, and pretty forest green eyes. She looked them over briefly, rolling her eyes at a few of the things on the list like they were too tedious to comprehend. I was inclined to agree. Some of the stuff on this list just sucked the fun straight out of fairytales. I had a feeling Mr. Saltzman would end up crushing all our childhoods with the truth behind our favorite movie memories. _Princess Jasmine would have worn much more clothing, married who her dad chose, and never would have spoken up like that. You're welcome._

"Hey, I'm Bonnie Bennett. What's your name?"

"Caroline Forbes."

"Nice to meet you. Welcome. Heads up, Ric is one of those teachers that likes to try to play hardball, but he's a total softie." we laughed and I thanked her for the tip. What're the odds that I meet a relatively cool person first period?

After class I caught up with Mr. Saltzman to ask for the work I must have missed and which textbook I would need for the course. He handed me a bunch of worksheets to catch up on the preliminary stuff I'd missed, like the difference between folklore and fairytales. He said I wouldn't have to hand them in but that I should still go through them to catch up on everything before the first test.

My next class was a psychology course in the same building but three floors up. I took the elevator up and found the room no problem but when I got there the room was completely empty. I couldn't have possibly been early. It was ten minutes past the scheduled time slot…where was everyone? Just as I was about to leave a young man walked in the room, jumping the second he saw me, almost spilling his coffee. That actually sounded so good right about now, I could really use a cup of coffee.

"You must be the new American student. Hi, I'm Professor Johnson." He couldn't have been more than 26 years old. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying. He looked so much like Damon it hurt. He had disheveled black hair, ice blue eyes, and a lazy look about him. He looked so much like my brother it made me want to cry. I sucked it up for the time being.

"Uh yeah…hi, Caroline Forbes. I'm sorry but where's the rest of the class?" Surely I couldn't be the only student in his class. That would be so weird. I would think they'd just cancel the class and allow any over flow into the full classes. As though right on cue a few students filed into the classroom each of them carrying a cup of coffee or a bagel or some kind of confection.

"Oh yeah…" he mumbled, shuffling some papers at his desk. "this class usually starts 15 to 20 minutes late. I don't enjoy dealing with caffeine-less or hungry students. It makes them cranky and unless I'm adequately caffeinated myself I can't handle that. Besides this is English 110. Most of my students already speak English."

Right…whatever. He must be fresh out of college, not intent on really establishing himself as a serious professor yet. Eventually he'll get sick of the constant rotation of rowdy, unappreciative students who don't want to learn. I shrugged off my urge to kindly inform him that lax policies weren't efficient. It wouldn't do him much good and really when had a teacher ever taken such advice from a student?

A few minutes into reading over the syllabus the rest of the class finally began to pour in. They all looked relatively fit for the class. Lax professor, lax students. Some of them looked like they'd just rolled out of bed, messy hair, dead eyes, and all. The only thing keeping me from bolting to the office to switch professors was my willingness to give everyone at least one chance. If I wasn't careful I'd slip back into my old habits. I mean for all I knew this would be a very intriguing class. Prof. Johnson could have some really innovative methods to help us look at literature in a different way. I could still excel in this course if I just gave this foreign policy a chance.

"You're in my seat." A voice startles me from my thoughts. I look up to find that a guy is standing directly next to me, practically hovering, with a small smirk on his face. I was slightly taken aback at how laid-back he seemed. The only students who cared enough to sit this close to the front were either super nerdy or wound tightly together, like me.

"Sorry, no one mentioned a seating plan. I'll remember that for tomorrow" I didn't want to seem rude but it was just a seat. Then again, for all I knew he had one of those conditions where a routine had to be followed for them to be within their comfort zones. Plus I hadn't really bothered to ask if there was, in fact, a seating plan. I just assumed there wasn't. Could a teacher who didn't care if his students were 20 minutes late honestly be concerned enough with the order in which they sat?

"You misunderstand, yank. That was me telling you to get the hell out of my seat, darling." His smirk had disappeared and he was currently glaring at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes at him. Who did he think he was that he could just demand, very rudely, that I move? I highly doubt things were different enough here for that to be socially acceptable behavior.

"It's quite alright, Kol. We can sit in the back today." A guy comes from behind him and claps a hand on Kol's shoulder. Kol sneers at me like I'm the scum of the earth, but listens to him. The guy is fairly attractive. He has stormy blue grey eyes and delicate dirty blonde curls. He smirks at me, broadcasting his dimples. "I apologize on behalf of my brother. He isn't really fond of you Americans."

Just like that he joins his brother in the back of the room. I cant even begin to explain how insulted I felt. Okay so America isn't the most likable country in the world. In fact its among the least likable. The shit that goes on there is hardly justifiable at time but that didn't give someone the right to not like me or be rude to me purely because I'm American. Last time I checked that kind of prejudiced racist crap wasn't acceptable in any properly developed country. Maybe it was my melting pot mentality at work but people of all nationalities should be able to get along amicably enough. Whatever, I brush off the extremely rude encounter as Prof. Johnson finally deigns it an appropriate time to start. Unfortunately all my hopes for the course were dashed when he announced our first book would be Twilight.

By lunch I've already forgotten about being behind, lax teachers, and rude Kol. I was just intent on getting through the rest of my classes without any more annoyances. I was intent on getting through the day without so much as a scratch on me. I sat at a table outside shaded by a huge tree when Bonnie and some blonde came over.

"Hey, Caroline, mind if we join?" I'm a little thrown off by it but nod anyway. I'd figured that, if anything, she'd just end up being one of those class friends. Like the one you go to if you miss a day or if the teacher says to pair up. I didn't think she'd be so forthcoming as to attempt a real friendship with me. It was odd considering I didn't really _do_ female friends my last year or so back home, but it felt nice. I was welcome to it if she was. "This is Lexi."

"Hey," she briefly assessed me, as many girls are prone to do. Females need to size one another up, to see what they were dealing with or if they liked the person. I sized her up in return and gave her a pending stamp. She had good hair, classic features, and what looked like great style but for all I knew she could be a grade A bitch. "love your look. I figured Americans just went to class in their pajamas."

"You as well. Decent mix between girly and I'll kick your ass if you disrespect me." Lexi's eyebrows shot up in surprise. A slow smile crept onto her face.

"I like her. So how do you like it here?"

"Well, I've already been subject to an anti-american but other than that it's fine. Not high school, not college. It's decent."

We spent the rest of our break talking about everything from classes to shoes. In general I got along with them really well. Lexi was a kindred spirit and Bonnie was funny and down to earth. Lexi left before Bonnie of I did, citing that she had to jet to psych before her teacher Freud-ed her to death. Bonnie took a few more stabs of her salad before tossing it out and asking me what class I had next.

"Politics, with Smith." I took a swig of my snapple. My classes were really generic. Math, english, psych, and then politics and folklore as my electives. All in all it wasn't that bad. I suppose when I chose what I wanted to do with the rest of my life I'd have to put in some real work. I was intent on putting that off for as long as possible. Say, long enough for my trust fund to kick in? Whatever, if Stefan could get away with not going to school so could I.

"Ditto. It's a shit class. By the way, get ready for some stare-downs. The new american is the talk of the town."

I shrugged. That was nothing major to be honest. The new kid was usually the latest gossip, I suppose my being american made it more fascinating for them. Especially when they've all settled into their patterns and I've only just arrived. Bonnie and I hesitantly left the courtyard and she led the way to our class.

Ugh, 10 minutes in and I already want to blow my brain out. This was hands down the most boring class I've ever been subjected to in my life. God, I feel like this is one of those 'hits blunt' classes. Even Bonnie, who'd answered every question so far, looked like she was half dead. At the halfway mark I begin to wonder why I'd chosen this. Out of all the electives I could've killed time with, why this one? But then it comes to me that I hadn't been the one to sign up for this. My parents had absolutely insisted that I take this course with the hopes I'd want to make a career in it I think. _Politics is synonymous with power, Caroline. This family could always use a little more power._ Bullshit. We didn't need more anything. No more family, no more money, no more power, nothing. Just as I was about to attempt to persuade Bonnie to duck out early with me the guy from my english class burst through the door with a bottle of bourbon in his hand. Smith immediately fixes her hawklike eyes onto him and glares.

"Care to explain your blatant absence, Mr. Mikaelson? You've missed half the class."

"Why would I allow you to waste 60 minutes of my life when you can only afford to waste thirty? Go on, get on with the damn lesson." He took a huge gulp from the bottle and I stared in awe. He was guzzling it down like it was water. Impressive.

"Give me the bottle and sit down." Smith rubbed at her temples like she suddenly got a grand headache and I just stared at them, trying to understand this dynamic. If a normal student came to class obviously drunk, with the bottle still in his hands mind you, they would be expelled on the spot. So why was I getting the feeling that this guy wasn't exactly normal? He either had a connection to the teacher or was able to pull some serious strings. He ignored her in favor of sitting on her desk, insisting that she move on with the lesson.

"Why don't you just get the fuck out, Klaus? You're wasting everyone's time." A tan, broad guy near the back of the room piped up, looking highly superior. Klaus shot his gaze over to him and smirked.

"Who are you to order me around, Lockwood. I practically own you." The tan guy glared at Klaus, a snarl forming on his lips.

"Yeah, we get it. You get to be a dick because your last name is Mikaelson. Doesn't mean we have to be subjected to your fuckery." he'd stood up from his seat now and had edged his way closer to Klaus, close enough to shove him a little at the end of his sentence. Klaus took one last swig from the bourbon before slamming him down on the table with his forearm around the guys neck.

"Fucking bastard!" the guy yelled. He let loose a string of expletives aimed at Klaus, who, for his part, nodded as though he was considering what Lockwood had to say. Klaus carelessly smacked the bottle against a table, causing the girls by the desk to squeal, and held it to the guys neck.

Nobody in the class got up to do anything, nobody even moved really. I don't know if this was normal or frightening for the other student or what but I was interested in seeing how this would end. Ms. Smith had left the room long ago, probably off to get some authoritative reinforcements. I almost felt bad for the poor guy, except it was his decision to try and tell off a drunk. Besides how was Klaus even holding him down? Klaus was lean but, obviously, muscled and couldn't be more than 5'11. The Lockwood kid he was holding down with a broken bottle to his throat was the broad type of muscly and definitely broke 6 foot. He looked like he could have easily gotten Klaus off of him. But that wasn't the case as he just laid there limp and helpless. Klaus leaned in to whisper something in his ear. The guy went paper white and nodded, finally shoving Klaus off of him just in time for the security guards to barge into the room.

They flanked him on either side, strangely enough not bothering to attempt to subdue him or take the glass from his hands or touch him even. Everyone was staring at him trying to see what he'd do next. Whatever it was, he was taking his goddamn time doing it. He ended up coming over to where Bonnie and I sat, bending down so that we were eye to eye. He reeked of liquor.

"Hello, love. I apologize for not properly introducing myself earlier. It completely slipped my mind." He smirked at me. His tone was very polite and conversational, as though he didn't drunkenly interrupt a class and threaten a peer. Before in English he'd seemed totally harmless. The way he was interacting with me now I still would've assumed he was perfectly harmless had I not just witnessed all that. "I'm Klaus Mikaelson."

"Caroline. Can I help you?" I made no attempt at hiding the rudeness or the suspicion in my voice. Why did he feel the need to introduce himself to me? And right now of all the times?

"Sadly, not at the moment. But, unlike my brother, I do intend to make you feel very welcome here." He gently caressed my face, his thumb briefly grazing my bottom lip. This guy was obviously suffering some kind of mental break. Before I could smack him away from me and admonish him for daring to touch me, a stranger, he'd already straightened up.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I got the feeling that the appropriate reaction to his antics would be to swoon or be insanely attracted to the whole bad boy thing, but I wasn't. While I may have partied hard back home I knew where the limit was and not to push it. He'd crossed so many lines that he wasn't even in the field anymore. "Do you generally attempt to make people 'feel welcome' by touching them randomly without permission?"

"Only pretty foreigners." He winked at me salaciously. Klaus began to saunter out the class room, lingering in the doorway for a minute to remind Ms. Smith to fax his missed work in a folder for him to pick up later.

I turned to Bonnie curiously. She just stared after Klaus with a disgusted look on her face. He sure was a rowdy son of a bitch. I could probably chalk him giving me his attention up to the fact that I was like a shiny new toy here. Like Bonnie said, I was the talk of the town today. I contemplated asking her what his deal was but decided it was best if I just dropped it. Out of sight, out of mind. By this time next week this would be a thing of the past, long forgotten. For the rest of the class Ms. Smith just had us read up on King John, the dick who made the english parliament necessary in the first place while she took the guy Klaus threatened, I'd learned his name was Tyler, to the nurse.

Bonnie and I parted ways after Politics, she had chem and I had math, which she insisted was called maths. I dragged my ass to class, grateful that it was my last one for the day. After this I could go back to school shopping. Stefan had offered to pick me up but I needed some me time. Retail therapy was a very spiritual act through which I could get to know myself a little bit more each time. I'd already lived and shopped in New York, now it was time to tackle a different fashion mecca. I was doodling in my notebook waiting for class to start when something, someone, blocked my light.

"Alright if I sit here?" Klaus was smirking down at me, gesturing at the seat directly beside me. I looked at him skeptically.

"Since you seem to have grasped the idea of consent, sure." He sat down and began copying what the teacher had written on the board for our warm ups. I hadn't noticed the teacher come in, and delved into the work as well. Or at least I attempted to. The warmups he'd written required the textbook. I raised my hand for his help. Instead of addressing me he came towards my seat to ask what was wrong. "I was wondering if I could borrow a textbook."

"Why don't you have a book yet young lady, its been a week." I open my mouth to answer him but Klaus beats me to the punch.

"How could she possibly have the textbook when it's her first day, you twit?" The stout teachers already rosy cheeks grew red and flustered. Klaus casually glanced up from his work at him as though he was confused as to why he was standing there. He dismissed the teacher with his hand like a dog. "Piss off, mate, I'll help her. Just do your job and tell her what materials she needs."

I wanted to scream. How did this guy get away with being such a fucking jerk? He came to class drunk and still drinking, sassed a teacher, assaulted a peer, and was just a plain bully. He was such a douche! Why was no one saying anything or standing up to him? I couldn't help but wonder if his brother was the exact same way. I had a hard time believing he would be any different considering how rude he'd been to me.

"You should get a psych evaluation. You're obviously unstable." Klaus rolled his eyes playfully and scooted his chair closer to mine.

"A simple thank you would have sufficed." It was my turn to roll my eyes and I reached for his textbook so I could just start the damn assignment but Klaus intercepted my hand. I tried to pull it away but he had a viselike grip so all I could do was glare at him. Then, without breaking eye contact he kissed my hand. His lips were featherlight against my hand. I tore my hand away from him while his hold had softened. He paid no mind to my apparent repulsion instead opting to flirt. "You've got gorgeous eyes, Caroline. Baby blue with gentle flecks of green."

"Oh spare me. Do girls you use that line on usually fall for that?" he chuckled softly and leaned back in his seat, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he did so.

"Normally, it takes much less." I didn't reply, efficiently ending the conversation. We didn't say anything to one another for the rest of the lesson, after which I handed him his textbooks. He winked at me. "Until next time, Caroline."

I scowled at the way he said my name. It rolled off his tongue a little too languidly for my tastes. I couldn't wait for the 'shiny new toy' thing to wear off so he'd leave me alone. I had him in three of my classes, so if it didn't wear off, soon, I'd be subject to constant harassment. No. I was so not down for that. I'd dealt with a lot of jerks like him back home, I knew how to handle them. But the only thing was that he was definitely a handsy douche like them, but he seemed to have a lot of sway in this place so he wasn't quite like the other pigs. Whatever, the sooner I got to the shops the sooner I could put that jerk behind me.

I left the school, looking up which bus I should take to get to the nearest non-shitty mall. There were black town cars and even a limo or two lined up outside the gates and I was momentarily confused until I remembered that most of the kids here were loaded. My parents wanted me to be with 'our kind'. I would once again rub elbows with the children of major business moguls, minor royalty, and government officials. Just like home before I burned all those bridges and jeopardized both the Forbes and the Salvatore names. God forbid the daughter of Governor Liz Forbes and Giuseppe Salvatore, who's from a mayflower family aka _very_ old money, step even a fraction out of line, much less jump straight over it. Whatever, I don't mind them loving their public faces more than me so long as it meant I didn't have to deal with them nearly as much as any normal daughter would.

I stare at the line of sleek vehicles for a moment before I decide what the hell, it wouldn't kill me to blend. The bus wasn't my thing anyway. I'd never taken one back in New York, why start now? I still had father's credit card and provided he didn't cancel it to punish me I could order my own car, which I did. There's no reason I should burden Stefan or take public transportation just because they took my jeep away. I'll just take town cars until they wised up and gave me my precious convertible back.

The car came about ten minutes after I called and parked behind the rest of them, like finding the hay in the haystack. It was fine though. I found it and told the driver that I wanted to go shopping and that it would be absolutely lovely if he could wait.

Two hours later I was giving the driver a generous tip and heaving several bags up to Stefan's apartment. My stress had started to dissipate twenty minutes into my spree, right after I bought a drool worthy black leather boots. Now, completely at ease, I could just help Stefan with dinner and head to bed. The bland, vanilla lifestyle suited me well to those who were unable to see past it. Settling back into the groove of being a well to do student and daughter wasn't going to be fun, but it would be easy. I'd gotten to all my classes, done my work, socialized, and was all set to do it again and again for the rest of the week.


	3. Chapter 3

"I hate this. This class will be the death of my sanity." Bonnie smacked her head against the table.

"But you're good at it."

"That doesn't mean she has to defer to me every single time." I laughed at her woes. She wasn't even exaggerating. Whenever Smith had a question or a point she wanted to make she deferred to Bonnie to answer it or explain the concepts. It had gotten to the point where I joked with Bonnie about skipping and she actually considered it for a moment. "She could at least ask someone else, just once."

"You're asking way too much of her. Who's she gonna ask, Klaus?" We dissolve into a fit of giggles. Ever since the incident last week with the bourbon and the threatening Smith had hardly looked in his direction, much less made him answer questions in class. The stupid jerk just got away with bossing his teachers around, god knows why.

"Yeah right. If anything could you ask him to tell her to lay off?" She dragged her head from the table and took a dainty sip of her drink. We were sitting in the courtyard before Politics, taking our time with our white chocolate lattes to avoid going to class for as long as we could. The later Bonnie and I arrived, the less torture we each had to endure. She had to avoid being cast as an unwilling teachers pet and I had to avoid Klaus' flirtatiousness. Even so, we were never more than 5 to 10 minutes late at a time.

It had been a week and my shiny new toy status is definitely dulled down but Klaus was nothing if not persistent. He made a point to sit by my side in our classes together, to forget his textbook when I finally got mine, and just be outright lewd. His attempts to seduce me were honestly laughable.

Speak of the devil, Lexi glared at something over my shoulder, jerking her head in a vague direction where she spotted him. She got up and bid us farewell, not willing to be as late to psych as we were going to be to politics. I didn't bother to look over to where she said he was. I had classes with him. I'd see him more than I wanted to already. I didn't need my break time to be invaded by Klaus as well. Besides he'd seemed super cranky in English earlier.

A few minutes later we gathered up our stuff and got up to go to class. It seemed like we got up just in time to miss the light drizzle that would surely get heavier later. I had adjusted to England just fine. The shops were lovely, the food was edible, and the people were nice but the one thing I don't think I'll ever be okay with is the shitty weather. It was anything but glamorous.

Bonnie and I sat in our usual desk, the one closest to the front, mostly because it was the only on left by the time we generally got to class. Smith gave us a quick glare but kept up whatever monologue she'd entered into. Apparently she was going to give us a certain degree of autonomy for the day. We had to profile any government official of our choice then present it at the end of class.

"I am going to pick your partners and I am inclined to pair my more diligent students with my lesser motivated ones." Everyone groaned as she began to rattle off names. I idly wondered if she found our despair fun. Surely it would be her only source of fun. She was a politics professor for god sake, politicians or rather people interested in politics are never inclined to have fun. "Ms. Bennett, my apologies, you'll be working with Mr. Mikaelson. Ms. Forbes you're paired with Mr. Lockwood."

I shot Bonnie a look of despair. While this Sixth Form was nothing like clique-y high schools back home, Tyler Lockwood defied all of that. He was the most stereotypical jock I had ever met. He was a meathead douchebag with a penchant for inappropriate humor. Not that anyone deserved to have a shattered bottle of liquor geld against their throat, but I could understand Klaus' loss of temper with him. Bon didn't have it any easier. Odds are she'd end up doing all the work, poor thing.

I gathered up my stuff and moved to where Tyler was sitting. He had this ridiculous grin on his face. He was obviously enjoying this. If he thought this would be all on me he was wrong or that this was an opportunity to flirt with me he was wrong. I was not going to be a willing participant in his stupidity. I was about to suggest we get this over with when Klaus came to stand next to Tyler telling him to move. His voice was deadpan and his face was stony. He clearly wasn't in the mood for anyone to push any of his buttons today. Either Tyler caught that or he was still reeling from his last Mikaelson encounter because he just got up without a word and went over to Bonnie. She looked vaguely surprised but went along with it, regardless. Klaus collapsed into the seat beside me without a word. It was uncharacteristic to say the least.

"You look like shit." I wanted to see if I could get a rise out of him. Normally by now he would have tried a line or given a wink or something. I wasn't used to him being so quiet. He was practically acting like a normal human being.

"Pardon my haggard appearance, love, I was entertaining twins last night. Savannah's stamina was only rivaled by Svetlana's agility. Both were fairly flexible." I curled my lip in disgust. Disgusting. He couldn't have just said 'I was up late' and left it at that? Klaus glanced at me sideways. "I was joking. I've just had an incredibly tiring day. But I do adore your concern."

"Lucky Savannah and Svetlana, dodging the bullet of your company. And I wouldn't say telling you that you look like shit is showing concern."

"Oh, no, the twins weren't the joke." He shot me a cheeky grin.

I scoffed at him and insisted we get on with the project. Perhaps if we got through it quickly enough it could put him off talking, or thinking, about his conquests. I began to rattle off the names of politicians I knew that wouldn't be exceedingly difficult to profile, but it was no use. I wasn't from here, this would probably be a lot easier if Klaus fucking helped. I took a deep breath to calm myself. If he wasn't going to help I wasn't going to do shit. Then we'd both fail.

"Don't make me smack you upside the head. Put in some effort here!"

"I assure you, darling, I like it rough. Besides what's in it for me?" I thought about it for a minute. A good grade would definitely not entice him to help. I think I know what would though. I reached into the back of my mind and pulled out old Caroline. I could take her for a tiny spin without getting too carried away. I was settling into my new routine quite nicely. She was better left back home where she belonged, but she was still useful if I happened to need something, like now.

"You help, I'll kiss you." I can tell I've finally caught his full attention. He'd put down his phone and was now staring me down.

"How much?" I don't miss a beat.

"Depends on how much of the project you're willing to do." The second the words come out of my big mouth I regret everything. I roughly shove old Caroline back in the box in the back of my mind and pray Klaus didn't get any wrong ideas. For all I knew he'd do the whole damn project. Then what? I shook off my apprehension. No. This was all just harmless fun, I was overreacting. Klaus could be a perfect gentlemen when the mood struck him. I had no doubt he'd behave when the time came for me to hold up my end of this silly little deal. Sadly the fact that he was grinning to himself like a cheshire cat and had returned to playing with his phone told me otherwise.

Twenty minutes later Kol barged in the class, completely ignoring Smith's protests. She demanded to know why he was interrupting but he shot her a look and she shut right up. Kol came straight over to us and slapped a spiral notebook on the table. Klaus thanked him with a smile as he slid the book over to me. When the time came to do presentations Klaus shook his head no, telling her we would go last. She didn't argue. Klaus' hold over this teacher, whatever it was, was strong. I don't know why he didn't just tell her that he wasn't going to do the project. I doubt she would have said anything other than okay. Pathetic.

After we finally did give our presentation, which I had to admit was pretty good, Smith showered us, mainly him, with praise. For her praise meant not nitpicking every single thing that was wrong with it and assuring us that we got full credit. i was tempted to tell her it wasn't ours and that Klaus had to be bribed with a kiss to participate but it wouldn't do me any good. She'd probably revoke the grade or reprimand me for solicitation.

Klaus and I left the classroom immediately following the presentation. He's got a really irritating shit eating grin too. I want nothing more than to slap it right off his smug face but settle instead for kicking him in the shin. I expected him to grip his leg or at least cry out but he just hooks his leg around mine, tangling me up so that I trip. I brace myself for the fall, thinking I'd land flat on my butt, except Klaus shoots his arm out to catch me.

"Now what was that for, sweetheart? I got the project done." He looked so amused and that just made me even more frustrated. He was right, he got the project done. He didn't do it, but he got it done. We aced it. I had no right to be as annoyed as I was. Suddenly Bonnie came out of the classroom, putting something neatly in her folder.

"Hey, Care, do you wanna—" Bonnie stopped short when her eyes landed on the two of us. "What're you doing"

Klaus' arm that had for some odd reason still been around my waist smoothly slithered away and he shoved his hand in his pocket. Bonnie still caught it though. Klaus smiled down at her sweetly greeting her as Bon Bon. She stared between the two of us for a second before shaking her head and walking away. I'd catch up with her later, or text her later, to explain. She probably just wanted to grab a bite to eat after classes were done or go shopping or something. Klaus returned his attention to me. He slowly getting closer and closer like a predator stalking its prey. He was about to lean in when his phone began blaring a rather annoying tune. He smashed his fist against the wall. I couldn't help but smile as he answered it. We'd been interrupted twice already. It was a sign that the universe seriously didn't want us to do anything.

"It's not her fault, you fucking—no. I said no, just stay there." He cussed under his breath and slid the phone back in his pocket when he was done berating the person on the other end. He kissed the back of my hand just like he had before. "I've got things to take care of. Don't worry, I'll collect my kiss before the day is done."

Just like that he left the building. I didn't bother mentioning that we had math next. He probably had that professor wrapped around his finger too. Whatever. At least I didn't have to share a book with him and suffer through him being unnecessarily close to me and 'accidentally' bumping his thigh against mine under the table. He was always super warm and smelled vaguely like vanilla. Anyway I guess he had the right idea skipping out on math. We had an extremely hard pop quiz and a huge packet he made due at the end of the week.

I left class with a desperate desire to just go home, pour myself the worlds largest glass of wine, and run myself a bubble bath. I'd just gotten a huge haul from lush and was suddenly very eager to make a dent in it. Just as I remembered I had to text Bonnie to see what she had wanted after class someone reached out and grabbed my hand. Next thing I know I'm pressed flush against Klaus and his hands on the small of my back are keeping me steady. When he saw that I wasn't trying to weasel out of his grip, I was caught off guard and still recovering from the shock, he moved his hands from my back to my hips and smirked down at me.

"Told you I'd come back to collect my reward."

I pulled myself away from him abruptly. He had said something to that effect. I furrowed my brow and sized him up. Fine, I had promised him a kiss in exchange for his compliance with classwork. Fine. I gripped his shirt in my hands and jerked him closer to me so that our bodies were once more pressed against each other. I tangled my hand in his curls and brought our lips together, possibly a little too forcefully. Klaus' response was immediate, he took control of the kiss, or at least attempted to. He swiped his tongue across my bottom lip asking for entrance but I was relentless and didn't budge. I got a kick out of teasing him and smiled briefly but he didn't seem to like my refusing to submit. He pressed me against the wall and growled a little, nipping my lip as he did. Finally I cut him some slack and opened my mouth for him to explore. I don't think I'll ever admit it but I let him take control of it after that partially because I was getting a little dizzy and partially because I wanted to know what he tasted like (chocolate by the way).

I felt Klaus start to deepen the kiss and took the opportunity to pull away. He grunted his disapproval but let me go all the same. I readjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder and wiped my mouth of with the back of my hand rather dramatically. I was trying to get the point across that all of that was trivial. It meant nothing. A simple fulfillment of a deal struck, a simple slip between old Caroline and new Caroline. God forbid he takes this as a stamp of approval on his pursuit of me. He could take this as a win, check the little box next to my name on his list of conquests and move on, like I would.

"Looks like you may need a cold shower." I took in his appearance. He was glaring at me with this dazed expression on his face, and panting rather heavily. "Or two."

When I got home there was a note on the island from Stefan saying he got called in for a meeting. I didn't mind much. I'd expected this from the beginning really. Stefan was sure to be available for me during my adjustment period, that was all I could have asked for really. He still had an important job and semi-important photo shoots to attend to. As a grown, presumably attractive single male he shouldn't have to stay home to babysit his little sister.

I needed some relaxing me time anyway. I raided Stefan's glass liquor cabinet in the hopes of finding a nice harlan estate merlot. Sadly all he seemed to have was vodka, whiskey, and champagne. I took the champagne and shoved it in a bucket of ice pending me running my bath. New Caroline wasn't as fond of vodka as old Caroline was and if Stefan came home and found out that I'd drowned out my day in whiskey he'd flip a shit. At the risk of sounding far too New York for my own good in addition to purchasing a fuckton of lush items I'd also treated myself to some ladurée macarons, 30 of my favorite flavors all wrapped up in an incredibly cute box. I was in for an insanely good treat. With champagne, macarons, a lush bubble bath, and some music literally nothing could spoil my mood.


	4. Chapter 4

**Guest(s)** — Thank you for being the very first reviewer and pointing out that I forgot to sort it, it completely slipped right past me. &amp; thank you to the other guest users for reviewing!

**meruhime** — Yeah Damon's in here. He was her brother &amp; I'll put what happened to him in eventually. It weighs on poor Caroline little shoulders. &amp; I see you're a double reviewer! Thank you for that. You're pretty attentive to the details that's cool. They're in sixth form which I think is kinda like 13th grade, in between college and hs.

**AvalonTheLadyKiller** — I like that! It leaves so much space for creativity.

**Booth** — another double reviewer! Thank you so much for that. I think it's because its new and the title is odd and the summary is weak and I didnt post it on tumblr or anything, I dunno. I'll try updating every week or every other week Truth is I have written several chapters ahead but editing takes me a while. I'll try making them longer too. &amp; I'll start leaving little authors notes, thats a good suggestion.

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**Chapter 4****  
**_**Klaus**_

When I arrived home I briefly considered taking that cold shower that Caroline had mentioned but decided against it. I was fine. She didn't affect me nearly as much as she wanted to think. Or at least that's what I would tell myself, I was unsure to be honest. She was a pretty little thing. Blonde hair, enchanting eyes, sparkling personality. But underneath all that simplistic perfection and goodness was just enough of a spark for me to work with to draw her into the darkness. A little effort and I could ruffle her feathers enough to turn her into a black swan. She'd be my target this year. I'd unravel her if it was the last thing I would do.

I headed straight for my studio, sudden inspiration flowing through me. I saw the most beautiful vista overlooking a beach with white sand and water clear enough to see fish. I wanted to get it all down in a sketch before I completely lost it. I pick up a pencil and slowly sit on the couch against the wall as I begin to draw. Normally I like peace and quiet when I painted but I hadn't anticipated Kol being home so early.

"No time for you to be artsy, brother. Bekah is dragging us along to a shoot." I took a deep breath and threw my pencil at him like a dart, stabbing him in the forehead.

"No, Bekah's dragging me to a shoot and you're simply tagging along because you want to hit on her friends."

"Same difference. You're no better, Nik. And since I refuse to take your leftovers its slim pickings for me." Kol flashes a cheeky grin and ducks out of the room.

I don't bother telling him I had yet to dip into her pool of Egyptian friends if he wanted to hazard his luck there but I'd probably get there soon enough, I liked to keep a very diverse palette. I put down my materials and follow him out to verify whether or not our sister actually needed me to go with her. She was by no means a stranger to modeling but she'd recently just broke through the jailbait label and some of the more risqué shoots could be a potentially dangerous environment for her. She could technically hire a manager or an agent or even security guards like some of the other models do, but found that bringing her brother(s), Kol and I, rarely Elijah, was just as effective.

By the time I reach the foyer Kol is already by the door, making some arrangements on the phone and Bekah is bouncing off the walls trying to collect herself. She was the most disorganized person I'd ever met. I had a feeling the second we reached to site she'd start whining about how I had let her forget her lucky lipstick or her iPad or, god forbid, her credit card. When Rebekah decided she was sufficiently ready the three of us piled into the limo.

"Why did you need that thing today, Nik?" Kol asked. If I didn't know better I'd say it was innocent conversation. Bekah had already popped open a bottle of champagne and distributed glasses. Normally I preferred something with more kick, but this would be the best I could do for today.

"It was an assignment. I just didn't feel like doing it." Kol narrowed his eyes at me and I just stared back at him, bored. I knew where he was going to try and take this. I considered not letting him, but I couldn't truly care less about his antics right now.

"Then why not just tell Smith to let you off the hook? Or better yet, why didn't you just make Caroline do it on her own?" at the mention of a girls name Rebekah finally tuned in to our conversation. She eyed me curiously to see what I would say.

"Don't worry your empty little head about how I profited from having the assignment."

Our sister rolled her eyes and launched into another monologue about how she didn't understand why we went to school in the first place. School was a formality for people like us, hence why she'd dropped out of high school to be homeschooled and focus on her, actually fairly lucrative, modeling career. She'd spent the time we wasted on school climbing up the modeling tiers, although she hadn't really started from the bottom anyway. Her life goal was to be an angel. Unfortunately she was very close. Once she peaked, then what? I suppose she'd branch out into other fashion endeavors, but my little sister was hardly the business personality.

Kol let the matter drop entirely. We made idle chit chat for the rest of the ride to the venue. When we finally did get there, however, Rebekah was the only one who was willing to get out of the car. I tried to pull her back in and insist she try again another time but she insisted that it was fine. The venue turned out to be a very old, very creaky, very unsafe abandoned warehouse. This is where no good junkies and gamblers spent a good amount of time. I feared poor Bekah would get ill just being here. God knows what kind of airborne diseases were bred and mutated in the very spot she was standing.

"Don't be such a dainty little bitch, Nik. Portia says I need to add a little more variety to my portfolio to show that I have range. I need to show everyone I'm not just a blonde bombshell."

"Since when are you even that?" Kol asked sarcastically under his breath. Bekah threw her clutch at him and he snorted at the face she made. Idiot.

"Fine. Go expand your horizons. I believe I'll go keep Tamsin company, it's particularly chilly today."

I found my little nymph just outside the warehouse smoking a cigarette and socializing with the other models. I gently took the cigarette from her hand, crushing it under my boot a second later, and buried my tongue deep within her mouth. The girls stopped dead in the middle of their riveting conversation about highlights, tittered, and scrambled away. One of my favorite things about Tamsin, aside from her physical beauty, was that her modeling resume included gymnastics, ballet, violin, sax, and amateur olympic swimming. She could hold her breath for nearly five and a half minutes before needing to come up for air and she was incredibly bendy. It was incredible. Eventually when she did pull away from me, it wasn't to tell me she had to go do her job or that we should slow down for the day. She just gave me her sultriest bedroom eyes and dragged me off in the direction of the limo.

By the time we resurfaced the day was nearly done. We had finished not a moment too soon. It was nearing 8:30 and Bekah only had a few more shots to get through. I make an attempt to find Kol but figure he'd still be in the throes of passion with one of our sisters coworkers. Finding her wasn't too much of a struggle anyway, I practically had a gps system programmed in my head for my baby sister.

I found her off to the side of the ware house mounting a steel death trap. She rolled her shoulders back in an attempt to loosen up and smiled off to the side at someone I couldn't quite make out. Now I'm not quite sure when the steam began to pour out of my ears but I do know it was somewhere in between when a black haired grease ball kicked his leg over the bike and when he proceeded to pose with and kiss my baby sister. He had to be at least my age, making him far too old for Bekah. Before I could stop the shoot the photographer scrunched up her nose at the sight before her, much like I had. She tilted her head to the side as though she was undergoing some deeply profound thoughts. She waved at the scene before her frantically.

"No, no, no. You're too…John Travolta, Danny Zuko. She isn't Sandy. She's not like this to please you. She isn't your accessory." The fucking punk looked so confused. He hadn't understood a word of what she was saying. The photographer sighed heavily, obviously in great despair. "For fuck's sake get out of the damn shot. Someone get me a Kenickie, a James Dean, a goddamn Marlon Brando."

A dirty blonde jogged up to the set then, muttering a quick apology for his tardiness. He pecked the photographer on the cheek and asked if he'd missed the entire thing. She didn't answer, just shoved him in the direction of the motorcycle where my sister was steadily growing more and more impatient by the minute. The man introduced himself to my sister and gently climbed on the bike. He looked behind himself to check on her.

He was not only a better fit according to the directors of the shoot he seemed more professional than the jerk on the bike before him so I let it continue without interruption. If it had taken me just five minutes longer than usual to finish up with Tamsin I might have missed all that, making me the worst brother. I'd have failed at the main reason she brought me to these things with her. Thank god I knew Tamsin well enough to get her to her climax in a set time frame.

Twenty minutes later Bekah practically skipped over to where Kol and I stood waiting by the limo, a big fat grin on her face. It was almost disconcerting to see her so chipper but I suppose it probably has something to do with the big garment bag in her hands. Sometimes she received thank you's from designers along with her pay and sometimes she simply got a bonus with her pay, but either way whatever this one gave her must have been nice.

When we got home I strolled into the kitchen in desperate need of a drink. I was going to have a busy next few days, starting with accompanying Bekah to some party, and needed to undo my soberness. Mother blew on her tea tiredly staring at me while I fixed myself a drink. Sometimes I felt bad for her. Other times not so much. But that was fine, it's not like she actually cared what I thought of her or thought of in general.

"Are you going to your fathers?"

"You know the answer to that, Esther." I knocked back my drink and quickly poured myself another.

She asked me this question a lot even though she always knew the answer. She probably hoped that one day my answer would change. I wonder if we were going to have that whole 'I know you can do better' conversation. Probably not. She didn't look like she had the energy to put up with Rebekah today, much less me. Even if we did I'm sure she'd fail. I'd lost track of how many times she tried to convince me that father is the devil in disguise.

My parents were interesting. They were two vastly different sides of the same coin. They were both of noble blood, born into prominently wealthy families. Mother used all her status and wealth to immerse herself in politics. She was an integral part in keeping the country running, a very important woman indeed. And while she used her status to aid the country, people like father were running it into the ground and ruining it, according to her anyway. Her greatest fear for her children was that we squandered our potential. She was afraid Elijah would become corrupt, that Bekah would be an airhead socialite, that Kol would party himself to death, but her fear was quadrupled when it came to me. She feared I'd be like him.

I pat her on the arm to ease her pain. She wasn't in any physical pain. The fact alone that I was her son seemed to be painful enough without her needing to associate any real physical pain with me. I bid her ado and reminded her about Rebekah on my way to the garage, our chauffeur in tow. I pointed at a random SUV and waited for him to bring it around.

Father didn't have anything too hardcore planned anyway. Just a few scenes to handle here or there, including a meeting with one of my sisters bosses. It'd be a breeze. I'd probably spend the majority of my time there fucking the multitude of women available to me. I considered trying my hand at toying with Caroline but decided against it. Not only did I not have her number but as of yet we had little to no interaction outside of our classes. It had to be organic otherwise it wasn't worth it. I had her where I wanted, I'd keep her there without driving her away. Well, actually on second thought she isn't _exactly _where I'd like her to be but I was a patient man. I'd get her in due time.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Special thanks to heartlynes, booth, and goldenhummingbird for their awesome (and appreciated) reviews, they were fun (and helpful) to read.**

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The next day my bones felt like jelly, my skin felt like clouds, and my hair felt like silk. I was literally floating through my day. On top of feeling so amazing, Klaus wasn't in any classes today. He wasn't in the halls either, or the canteen. It was a beautiful annoyance free day. Which meant that either things were looking up for me or that shit was about to hit that fan. Unfortunately it was the latter of the two, but that was fine.

In the beginning of math the professor slapped a note on my desk without a word and went back to the lesson. I rolled my eyes. So rude. The note was from the admin office saying the principal wanted to speak with me, at my earliest convenience. I took a peek up at the professor, now droning on and on about imaginary numbers, and decided that right now was my earliest convenience. I was quite alright with formulas, shapes, and letters that represented numbers but now we were doing _imaginary_ shit? I collected my things and walked out of class.

Something told me the principal just wanted to know how I was adjusting. I bet he was just going to check on my progress. If I were still home this would have been a walk of shame for me. I'd be racking my brain to think of what I could have done, or which thing I had done, had lead me to the office. More importantly my mind would be on what it would cost my parents to make my transgressions disappear. Sometimes it would be all on me, like detention or community service, other times it would literally cost them. I can't count the number of events my parents had to sponsor on my behalf. But this time I was sure I hadn't done a damned thing. It felt nice to be headed to the office with no chance of me being in trouble.

I knocked on the door twice before I heard him grumble for me to come in. His voice sounded familiar. Had I spoken with him during one of the conference calls my parents made to get me admitted? I opened the door and entered the office, then turned around and immediately tried to leave. If it weren't for Kol Mikaelson, honestly what kind of name was Kol, I would have left too. I groaned loudly and turned back around.

"Hello there, love. How are you?" Klaus smiled up at me, smug as ever. I wanted to ask what the hell he was doing in the principals office, sitting behind the desk with his legs propped up on it.

"I _was_ having a great day. Mainly I was enjoying a you-free day but now that that lovely experience is over what do you want, Klaus?"

He placed a hand over his, probably dead, heart, pretending to look offended. I crossed my arms over my chest impatiently. i didn't have time for this, for him. I'd actually rather go back to math to learn about imaginary numbers than sit here chatting with him, and that was saying something. When I didn't budge or pretend to feel sympathy for my rudeness he rolled his eyes.

"You know there are a lot of dandy things to do in here." He began. I shrugged in response. I didn't know where he was going with this and to be perfectly honest I really didn't care. "Like, just for an example of course, student files. It says here you went to a prestigious private school before this and there's also a nifty packet of your disciplinary record. Note that I said _packet_."

"You went through my file?" I yelled. He'd finally caught my interest. What kind of freak was he to dig up my personal information like that? Was that not a criminal offense here? Why was he commandeering the principal's office anyway, and how for that matter?

"Shhh, that's not the point here. The point is that I would like to know how the wholesome daughter of a US senator and a prominent businessman could possibly go from being the chair of so many committee's and class president to," he squinted at the embarrassingly long record of my wrongdoings. "going to class in inappropriate attire and telling a teacher to fuck off when she reprimanded you for being late."

"Firstly, you're actually criminally insane. Secondly it wasn't 'inappropriate attire' it was pajamas. Thirdly she deserved it for mocking how long it took for me to curl my hair. Curling with a hang over isn't easy." I stared Klaus down, unamused, as he began to laugh his ass off. He was thoroughly enjoying the details of my…complicated past whereas I didn't see any of it the slightest bit amusing.

"Okay, I get it. Daddy's always in a meeting and mummy's busy helping run the country but it says you have two elder brothers. Weren't they enough to keep you in check?"

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from reacting to that. I did have two older brothers. I felt tears begin to sting the corners of my eyes but I forced them back. Mikaelson would never see me cry, over my dead body. I steeled myself against the resurfacing memories and whirled around to leave. This was none of his business. It was nobodies business but my family's and even they didn't like to address it, like ever.

I pushed past Kol and left the office, not intent on going back to class either. I went straight outside to call for a car to take me home. I decided I couldn't properly take the rest of today. Not with the threat of my past bubbling back up to haunt me. If Klaus wanted to be a fucking stalker and find out everything about me then fine he could do that till he was blue in the face but no one here was supposed to know the details of my life at home. I would keep it that way.

The car came in less than five minutes and thanks to the fact that I ordered a specific driver I was home without even having to say a word. I could feel a massive migraine coming on thinking about the work I may have missed in class and wanted to cuss at Klaus for ruining my day. My only solace was in the fact that it was Friday. Bonnie and I were supposed to have plans but she cancelled in favor of going on some kind of date or something like that. Since that freed me up I could sulk all I wanted all weekend. I climbed up the stairs to Stefan's apartment thinking about what I'd knock off my Netflix queue and just as I was about to open the door Stefan came out the apartment looking stressed.

"Caroline! Shouldn't you just be getting out of classes now?" he checked his watch to make sure he wasn't on a different timetable.

"Decided to come home early, you okay?"

"No. I was about to go to the office to knock a few things off my workload when I got a text from this designer for this mandatory event thing so now I'm rushing to the office to try and get at least something done before I have to go."

"Poor Stefan. Headed off to a stable job that pays really well before he has to go party with models and fashion designers." My tone was playful but I wanted to shove him into a hole. Why was he even stressed about such a thing? I'd literally kill to be him right now.

"Be nice, you big bully. Actually, do you wanna come with tonight? These types of things aren't really my cup of tea, it might be more fun if you tag along."

"Hm, would I like to go to a party full of yummy models and meet the people who most likely design 90% of my clothes? Yeah, yeah I would Stefan." He smiled at me briefly and then ran down the hall to the elevator promising to pick me up at 6:30 sharp.

My day could definitely use the pick me up of a swank party. Some champagne, some socializing, a little sprinkle of lucrative opportunity and bang my day was salvaged. I set aside my favorite gold dress with the tiny slit by the left leg and the matching shoes to the side. It was my favorite not only because the color and pattern suited me well but also because it was the perfect balance of business and party. Not too stuffy, not too sexy, just the right amount of each.

Later on at 5:45 Stefan came back home, thankfully with take out in tow. I was only half ready, with 15 minutes left to do my hair and eat the food he provided. I rushed through curling my hair figuring I'd just have to settle with waves instead tonight. I'd just started to dig in when Stefan tossed a napkin at me and rushed us out the door. He had a car waiting or something like that.

To be honest I was surprised he was even going to this thing, whatever it was. Stefan hardly knew what having fun or partying was as far as I was concerned. While I was a veteran who'd enjoyed her career before buckling down, Stefan had buckled down in the beginning and never actually taken the ride. Partying was practically synonymous with the modeling world. Stefan never really entertained it much though. I think he only went when it wasn't a wild club type thing. Like he only went when it was a classic, mutual business opportunity type thing. Boring.

As I'd expected the second we got there Stefan found the host and made boring small talk with him and went around mingling like that for a while, me at his side being very polite and trying to not shoot myself in the face. This boring business talk would be the absolute death of me. Just as Stefan and one of his hairdresser friends started discussing foreign policy with regard to modern warfare I excused myself to sit down. Leave it to Stefan to find the worlds only party like this. I mean honestly, what were these people thinking? I was about to call over a waiter to take my drink order when an unwelcome guest slid into the seat next to me at the table I'd commandeered.

He shot me a wicked little smirk and stared at me for a few minutes, probably undressing me with his stormy eyes. Eventually I got sick of it and fixed him with my iciest glare. This event was meant to lift my spirits, though now that I was here and bored out of my mind I'd have to rethink that. But still, it was supposed to help my mood after the dreadful office encounter with him earlier today. Either this was one hell of a coincidence and the higher powers that be were laughing at my pain or he was a better stalker than I initially anticipated and I should call the cops right this minute.

"Riddle me this, love. If we've already shared a glorious kiss why do you have such an aversion to flirting, particularly touching." I sent him a fierce scowl.

That kiss was purely bribery at work. To be honest it wasn't the constant flirting that bothered me. I could easily ignore pick up lines and empty flattery. It was the infrequent but still completely present touching that got me so worked up. Kissing my hand, tucking my hair away just right so that his hand often grazed my cheek, 'accidentally' or 'unknowingly' pressing his leg to mine under the desk in classes we shared. I had a problem with all of that. He wasn't necessarily being handsy in the way one would expect, like constant groping or slinging his arm around me. Every time he touched me it was small, almost intimate. For instance, right now his hand is on my leg. It's very lightly placed on my knee when he could just as easily have placed it firmly on my thigh. Him not being rudely handsy made it harder for me to deal with him the way I normally would with a pig. It was harder to reprimand gentle, sweet touches, especially when I don't know what to make of them. That being said it unsettled me every time he touched me and I didn't like it. Besides, it's not like I was touching his, admittedly nice, body all the time.

"I don't have an aversion to flirting, Klaus, I have an aversion to you." He didn't seem to like my answer. His smirk faltered a bit and he did a tiny double take while looking at me. "What are you even doing here? Are you following me now?"

"No, this was just luck working in my favor. My little sister is one of the designers favorites. She dragged me along tonight."

"You have a sister?" I found it hard to believe that Klaus could have a little sister and still be comfortable with how much he annoyed me. How would he feel if some guy was constantly flirting with and touching her? Klaus had taken a pause to look around the crowd for someone but stopped to answer me.

"Yes, she's a model. She generally drags me along as her caregiver in the event something shady or unprofessional occurs." He called a waiter to our table and ordered a whiskey, neat, for each of us. "Shit decision on her part, if you ask me. But it's not like she could ask Kol or Elijah."

I was curious as to how he knew how I like my whiskey but decided that it was pure chance and tried to focus on why he was being so chatty tonight. Sure we talked in class, but that was mostly banter and his lame attempts at wooing me into his arms, or, rather, his bed. Tonight he seemed extra forthcoming. I assumed Elijah was another sibling of his.

"Why is it a shit decision if you were her last resort after Kol or Elijah?" I thanked the waiter as he arrived with our drinks and took a hearty sip of mine. If I was going to be cordial with Klaus Mikaelson tonight I would need to be at least buzzed. He seemed surprised that I was carrying a conversation with him and as a result took a second to reply.

"Well, we're all bad choices. You've met Kol. My elder brother Elijah doesn't approve of her modeling and nitpicks everything from the photographers, coworkers, makeup artists, hairdressers, to the designers. But I'm a bad choice because I always shirk my duties in favor of the company of a beautiful woman and end up losing her for an undetermined amount of time. Like now."

I wrinkled my nose. Something about the way he mentioned that he liked to spend his time in the company of beautiful women put me off. He was a player that was for sure, and I was his challenge. I was the fish that wouldn't bite, I refused to take the bait, all of it. Even so, I doubt it was necessary that I should have to hear insinuations to his surely vast amount of exploits. In fact I think we'd all be happier if I didn't. I offered to help him look for her if it meant he'd leave me alone but he waved me off and told me not to be so silly. I rolled my eyes and took another stab at getting him to take the hint that I wanted him to go away.

"Well, since you're acquainted with them already why don't you head off and spend some time with your sisters beautiful friends then?" I polished off my drink and quickly ordered another.

"I only take what I need, Caroline, there's no need to spend time with them when we're done. They're not worth my downtime, sweetheart." He was completely serious for a second before smirking at me once more. "But you're quite the exception. If you'd like I could call one of them over here to tell you what you're missing out on."

"Don't." My voice was deadpan. I didn't want him to do that for a number of reasons, the main one being that I hardly wanted him here. Why would I want his fuck toys here too? "Then I'd have to tell them what they're missing out on—"

"A little catty for someone who claims not to enjoy my company."

"You didn't let me finish. I'd have to tell them what they're missing out on and when I do none of them will ever sleep with you again. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go find Stefan." Boring business talk be damned, I stood up to go find him but Klaus' hand shot out and grabbed my wrist.

"You're not excused. Why don't I help you find this Stefan?" Klaus' voice was oddly calm and even.

I just went along with it. It's not like he would've taken no for an answer. If I couldn't lose him in the crowd I could get rid of him the second we found Stefan. Stefan would do the chivalrous big brother thing and tell him to fuck off or else. We moved through the loose crowd with ease, Klaus' hand had somehow intertwined with my own. There goes my chance at losing him in the crowd, however light it may be. I stopped to think for a minute. Where would my wet blanket, doesn't know how to have proper fun and stop worrying about things, brother be hiding? He wouldn't be at the bar or on the dance floor that's for damn sure. Booths, he's probably in a booth making idle conversation with an acquaintance or setting up future opportunities with a company.

I pulled Klaus in the direction of the booths and away from the leggy redhead that'd caught his attention. I would have left him there if not for his death grip on my hand. Sure enough I found Stefan sitting in a booth with some blonde. They looked like they were having a nice conversation too. Stefan was smiling, it reached his eyes and everything. That meant he was enjoying her company not just out of politeness. As we got closer I could see that her hand was on his thigh and she was leaning into him. I stopped in my tracks waiting to see if he'd accept the hints and make the move. A second or two later he scoots a little closer to her and slings his arm over the seat right behind her. Internally I'm cheering for my big brother accepting the blonde's flirtations. Post-Gilbert Stefan was such a mess none of us knew whether or not he'd ever actually venture out into the world of opposite-sex interaction ever again.

"Judging by the fact that I've suddenly lost all circulation in my hand I'm going to guess that he's nowhere to be seen?" Klaus startled me from my proud sister moment. I grimaced in his general direction and loosened my apparently tightened grip on his hand.

"He's right there. He's flirting." I pointed in the direction of my brother and Klaus squinted.

"I recognize him. He was at one of my sister's photo shoots. Who's that he's sitting with?" I looked back over at the blonde flirting with my brother. She didn't look familiar to me. She wasn't from Stefan's office and he'd never mentioned her.

"No clue. I don't have the heart to interrupt him." I was afraid if I interrupted the flow he had going it would ruin everything. I didn't want to spoil his chance at getting back out there, that would be plain bratty. Klaus shrugged and began tugging me in the direction of where he was sitting anyway. I didn't have the heart to disturb my brother, but he sure as hell did. I resisted as much as I could before Klaus got fed up with my squirming and laced an arm around my waist, tightly, to keep me by his side. His hand was warm and landed on my hip, aside from the rudeness of it all, it felt admittedly nice.

"Hello, I'm Klaus. I'm a…special friend of your sisters." Stefan looked startled. He ignored Klaus and shifted his gaze over to me. I shrugged, meaning that I'd explain later.

The blonde sitting next to Stefan was now standing and didn't look as happy or nice as she had when she was talking to him. She picked up her appletini and threw it, rather forcefully, in Klaus' face. It took all I had not to laugh. Everything after that happened so fast. Stefan stood up, blondie started yelling, Klaus was dabbing at his face with a cloth the waitstaff provided, I was trying to gather why she'd had such a negative reaction to him, and Stefan wanted to know who he was and why he was so close to me. It was a very messy, very comical situation. Stefan finally got fed up and told blondie it was nice spending time with her. He stepped away from the booth to take me away from Klaus, who didn't seem to care that this woman was so angry with him. He kissed the top of my hand as my brother pulled me away, promising to see me soon.


	6. Chapter 6

Stefan didn't let me go until we were safely in the apartment. He went straight to his room, loosening his tie as he went, to change out of his mini monkey suit. I didn't know what to do so I just plopped on the couch and waited for him to come back out. He was pretty irritated, probably for a number of reasons, so I didn't bother asking about his blonde companion right away. When he came back out dressed in sweats and a gray wife-beater he sank into the couch next to me with a heavy sigh. I don't think he was looking forward to this talk very much.

Our mother and father had always had very lax, almost nonexistent, parenting techniques. I doubt he even knew where to begin. Would he begin with explaining who his friend was before he asked about mine? That is, who he assumed was my friend. Would he begin with asking about who Klaus was, or rather who he was to me specifically? Would he ignore it and let tonight go? Would he reprimand me for not telling him about Klaus or blame me for having to leave early? Although, really, that would be so far out of bounds because technically it was Klaus' fault.

"Do I even want to know?" he looked at me tiredly. That was refreshing. I'd honestly believed he'd try to pull a parent act on me. I should've known better. We were like best friends, not just siblings. We always told each other everything. But I didn't know how he'd react if I told him Klaus was a total dick who didn't take no for an answer, know the meaning of boundaries, and was possibly completely insane.

"He's in a few of my classes. Just a hopeless flirt who's relentless in his pursuit of my attention." That was a nice way to put it. "He's a player. I've been biding my time until someone else catches his eye but I think he gets off on annoying me. Who was that pretty little thing at the table?"

"That was just a girl I've worked with a few times. She's pretty nice." Stefan shrugged and didn't say anything else. He began channel flipping like there was no tomorrow. He was definitely avoiding having this conversation with me. He didn't even like tv. He much preferred curling up with a good book, or writing in one.

"And pretty cute," duh, she was a model. "You gonna ask her out?"

"After that display? No, thank you. Besides it'd be best to keep things professional. Who knows the next time we'll work together. I don't like on set tension."

I let the subject drop. He'd find any excuse to any female to not start dating again. Too brash, too timid, too tall, too short, too blonde, too brunette, professionalism, unprofessionalism, literally anything was fair game in his list of reasons to reject advances. But that was fine. One day he was going to meet a girl so amazing, so perfect for him that he'd have no choice but to give her a shot and he'll have moved on from whatever's holding him back without even noticing.

_—_

The next day I was lounging on the couch upside down with a huge bowl of popcorn resting on my tummy and watching Grease when Lexi texted me. I'd been right in my initial judgement of her. She was really nice, pretty cool, and a genuinely good person who just happened to like to have a good time too. She was like my twin, but with a control filter. That is, she never got too out of control like I tended to do sometimes, if pushed. I read over her text a few times. Apparently there was a house party and she wanted to know if I wanted to go.

I thought about it for a while. Last nights soiree was meant to help me decompress, let loose like the teenager I was. It was safe to say that that had been a total bust. I deserved a second chance right? Yes, yes I did. I've been behaving so well lately I deserved a treat. I texted her back saying I'd go and asked if Bonnie was coming too. Apparently she wasn't because of some prior engagement. That was okay. Sure, I was closer to Bonnie but that was mostly because we spent more time together. Lexi and I shared no classes and hardly saw one another outside of break period when we all ate. She texted me where to meet her and told me I should dress lightweight. I paid her warning no mind. I knew how stuffy these things could get, depending on the amount of people and how much I drank. Jeans and a lacy crop top would suit me fine.

When I was all ready I met Lexi by a string of little restaurants and greeted her with a smile. She knew what was up. I guessed she'd asked me to meet her here so that we could eat first, then go drink ourselves dumb. To drink on an empty stomach was to have a death wish.

Eventually we did get to the party and I was almost instantly overwhelmed. I'd almost forgotten what this kind of fun looked like. I took a second to breathe it all in, letting the atmosphere soak my pores before Lexi dragged me off to the thickest part of the crowd. An hour and several shots later, some conventional—some body, I'd lost Lexi to the bathroom line, sat myself on a random couch to rest, and I'd tied up my hair into a loose ponytail. I really needed the short break until Lexi came back. My heels were starting to hurt, I knew my thighs and calves would be remarkably sore tomorrow but I couldn't bring myself to care too much about that. I was having a genuinely good time. But of course that meant something had to ruin it. My phone shattered through my aura of bliss with its constant vibrating.

I glared at it. The stupid thing was currently displaying Stefan's text wondering where I was. He'd called twice and sent two messages before that asking me if I was okay and when he should come get me, like I couldn't get home on my own. And why was he even stressing? Did I have some unspoken curfew? Well, fuck that curfew. He was probably just reliving NY. I wasn't that girl anymore, I learned my lesson the hard way. I didn't want to go home right now or any time in the near future. It was only 12. I didn't want to reign it in away from the ledge, I wanted to let loose. In fact, I had the strong urge to just stay with Lexi tonight. She'd offered to get her DD to take me home or crash with her earlier, I should accept.

Stefan would just force me to reel it all back in, but I was still in total control. Okay, maybe only like half in control. Those shots had really done a number on me. It would seem that my limit was apparently meant to stay at 3 shots of vodka, 2 shots of tequila, and a four loko. I shoved my phone back in my jeans pocket and shoved my way through the throng of writhing bodies to the kitchen. Water, I needed water to simmer down from tipsy to buzzed.

I'd already downed my second bottle of water, I didn't trust the huge pitchers of water on the counter, and moved back to the living room when I felt arms encircle my waist. I whipped around instantly bringing my knee up only to be met with Klaus doubling over from where my knee connected with his groin. He sank into the nearest couch with a loud groan. I didn't necessarily regret it but I did feel kinda bad. He shouldn't have snuck up on me like that. I was technically alone at a party in a place wholly foreign to me, it wasn't my fault that my first reaction to some random person touching me would be defensive. I shove a skinny brunette away from loitering by the fridge and gather some ice and bring it back to him. He takes it gratefully.

"Hello to you too, Caroline."

"Sorry about that. Sort of." I shrugged as he sat up a little straighter to sink into the couch stiffly. I took the seat beside him. "What're you doing here, Mikaelson? First the file thing, then last night, and now here? You're seriously stalking me."

"Au contraire, love, it would appear that you're the stalker. I live here." His voice was more relaxed and slightly less pinched than it had been. The pain must be dissipating. I scoff to myself. It'd be just my luck that this would be his house. This whole week had just been one unfortunate stream of coincidences.

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?" the bitterness practically oozes from my words. "Do you normally have ragers like this?"

"When I feel like it." Klaus shrugged and set the ice on his crotch aside. I was kinda hoping there'd be a wet spot there but no such luck.

I'd started to make a list in my head, the pros and cons of Klaus. So far the list was considerably dead locked. But the fact that he threw parties like this was another tick in the cons list. My parents had sent me here for a number of reasons, the thing with Damon and subsequent wild antics being the main one. It was a major con that Klaus did stuff like this. While I was perfectly fine letting loose enough tonight to cross a few of my newfound boundaries I couldn't be around someone who did this wild stuff regularly. I may have extraordinary resilience but the temptation was too strong. Literally every time he was near me I felt the ever present threat of my former recklessness resurfacing. I didn't like that one bit. Who the hell was he to be able to do that anyway?

While I was distracted by my inner debate Klaus had wound his arms around me again and managed to pull me into his lap. I put my thoughts on pause and jabbed him in the chest. What was he doing? He was touchy, but not this touchy. Why was he holding me? He smelled really good. You'd expect him to smell like booze or illicit drugs but no, he just smelled like vanilla and soap. It was nice. But no, it wasn't nice he had to let go of me now. My jab had done little to deter him from holding on tight and he was even trying to hold a conversation with me I think. I thrashed around for a few seconds, trying to squirm out of his grip. Eventually I got tired of that and just went slack to lean against his chest. There was plenty of space on the sofa. I wanted to sit on the sofa. I felt his fingers brush the side of my neck gently.

"I don't think I've ever seen your hair up. It looks nice." I rolled my eyes.

More empty flattery was going to get him nowhere. Anyway there was a reason I didn't put my hair up often. It was part of my bum look. I only put my hair up when I was cleaning, studying, working out, or going to bed. Dancing had made me sweat out my curls and instead of falling flat like cooperative hair it decided to frizz up. I'd had no choice but to put it up. I felt him press the tips of his index and middle fingers into the little crook in my neck right above my collarbone. He mumbled something about clavicles being his utter weakness. I roll my eyes and tighten my jaw in an attempt to ignore the shivers running rampantly up and down my spine. Klaus leaned his head into the crook of my neck, resting there for a minute. I was surprised to say the least but figured that this would be a good a time as any to deter him. I resisted the strong urge to just leave him be and tangle my fingers in his lustrous curls and pinch him in the side instead. He jumps a little, allowing me to slide into the seat beside him.

Klaus didn't seem to be too bothered that I'd freed myself from his grip. In fact he looked perfectly fine with it as he readjusted his position in the sofa to be more turned towards me. We got to talking about any and everything. He wasn't so bad when he was acting like a normal human being. Maybe he was drunk? If so, liquor suits him well. Somehow he ended up laying flat on his back on the couch with his head in my lap. I had been absentmindedly stroking his curls when I noticed that it was super comfortable. I'm supposed to not like Klaus, I'm supposed to be regarding him with disdain and rebuffing his advances, but this felt really good.

He stopped his monologue about snowflakes mid-sentence, probably detecting that I was no longer paying any attention, and sat up. I stared at him curiously wondering what his next move would be. Tonight had started out really nice and fairly normal but it had taken a very strange turn and just continued down that path. Regardless of the pleasant and mildly innocent beginnings I knew I'd probably regret every last bit of it tomorrow.

"I'd like very much to kiss you." I stared at him like he'd lost his marbles. I already knew that. He'd made his superficial attraction to me more than clear. Was this his asking me my permission to kiss me? "I'm going to kiss you now."

Apparently so. He leaned in towards me slowly and I felt my heart skip a few beats in anticipation. When his lips finally met mine I couldn't help but smile. They were soft and gentle and nothing like last time. The only other time we kissed he'd been eager and rough and quick to try and establish dominance. If I had to describe it, this kiss was a slow, long drag from a 12 inch bong on a Saturday, and the last kiss was a quick joint before class on a Monday. His lips moved rather sensually with mine, he was making very smooth, fluid, deep movements. He'd somehow maneuvered his hand to caress the side of my face. If my hair was down I'm sure he would've been playing with it a little by now. Eventually we came up for air but there was a thick tension in the air. Neither of us spoke. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye while I was still catching my breath but his eyes were closed and he was taking really deep breaths, I think he was trying to collect himself. I'd be damned if I let him do that. I liked being able to make him lose his composure, it sent sparks of adrenaline through my veins. Plus, it was my revenge. If he could rattle me, surely I could unravel him.

I moved over to straddle him, placing my hands lightly but firmly on his shoulders. His lips parted ever so slightly as he stared up at me from under his thick lashes. I caught that his eyes had darkened with what was probably lust and the fact that his breathing hitched ever so slightly. It made me feel delightfully powerful, having Klaus Mikaelson be putty in my hands. I purposefully move towards him sluggishly, in absolutely no rush to resume our…whatever this was turning into. I brush my lips against his briefly, but bypass his attempts to kiss me and instead direct my attention to his neck. I move my mouth up the length of his neck, from his collarbone to his earlobe, deliberately nibbling at one particular spot before making my way up to nipping at his ear. I move back down to the spot I'd scathed earlier and begin to kiss his neck in languid, soothing movements. His breathing had gotten shallower and I could tell he was holding back a moan.

It doesn't take long before I feel him harden beneath me. It probably wasn't very nice, or very wise, but I couldn't help but to succinctly grind against him. He placed his hands firmly on my hips, most likely to still me. I ground into him again, playfully this time, and he dug his nails into me, a warning. I abandoned my work on his neck and dove into kissing him again, immediately gaining entrance to his mouth. I stealthily placed my left hand over his right and began to guide it, first under my top, then up…up…until he growled impatiently and pulled away from me.

"No." Klaus ran his hand through his hair a few times, tousling it in a way that I found actually kind of cute. It completed the whole disheveled look he had going on right now.

Did he honestly just say no to me? When did I step into an alternate universe? An odd feeling swam through me and settled in the pit of my stomach. My head was swarming. I recognized the disgusting feeling as rejection. I wasn't exactly a stranger to rejection, it was a part of life, but somehow coming from Klaus it was like I'd just bit into cyanide. It was entirely unpleasant. I wanted to slap him into next week but just peeled myself away from him, or at least I tried to. His hands on my hips held me firmly in place. I glared at him.

"Come now don't be petulant, love. It doesn't become you." He reached up to caress my face with the back of his hand lightly. "I was simply halting progress before you crossed a particular line."

"How chivalrous." I deadpanned, completely sarcastically. "What if I meant to cross that line?" something glinted in his eye then, bright and mischievous.

"Ah, that would be the point of no return."

I bit my lip and stared down at him for a second. It was really tempting. _He_ was really tempting. Dare I say fuck it? Dare I throw caution to the wind? No, that would be irresponsible. That would be proving my parents right in thinking I was a disreputable child incapable of good decision making or change. Had I met Klaus back home I'd have secured him as a bedmate by now. I'd have thrown all my scruples, not that I had too many back home, out the window and fucked Klaus until he couldn't remember his own goddamn name, just mine and perhaps God's. Alas, this wasn't back home where I had nothing to lose and nothing to prove. It'd be beneficial for me to set down some rules. The way I see it I just really needed to get him out of my system.

"Let's be clear. This is a one time thing, no strings attached right? This is purely physical attraction that's reached its zenith. No tying down emotionally. Of course, physically is a different story. Promise?"

"I give you my word."

"Good."

I got back to work impatiently devouring his lips. He hoisted me up and began carrying me somewhere, presumably somewhere more private. Just then I remembered that this was his house. He was probably taking me to his room, provided it hadn't been invaded by over zealous partygoers already. Then again this was Klaus, everyone here was probably well aware of which lines not to cross, like destroying things for instance. There were red cups and empty beer bottles scattered around, but the floor was clean and the furniture and walls remained in tact. For such a good party, it was rather tame destruction wise. His maids would breeze right through clean up. Of course, getting out any rings left by the cups or spilled drinks may prove to be a tad bit tricky. Some of these drinks the others were thinking up were outrageously complicated and would be super sticky if spilled.

I'm abruptly pulled from my, admittedly strange, thoughts when I hear a door bang loudly as Klaus kicks it shut. He pulls away from me after placing me on his bed. I notice that he already has condoms placed out in the open on his bedside dresser. I'd think it's rather presumptuous if I hadn't already assumed that Klaus was a man slut. The easier the access the better, no time wasted and all that. He came back a second or two later with a huge glass of water. I disregarded it and roughly pulled him onto the bed with me.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning the sun blared from his gigantic bay windows, making me very grateful that I hadn't sustained a hangover. The worst of my troubles was a light headache and some achingly sore muscles. I didn't dare let my mind touch on the fact that that was the first restful sleep I'd had in ages. I hadn't sleep-walked, woken up, or had even a hint of a nightmare. Rather than facing the facts of who I'd just slept with I channeled my energy into figuring out how to sneak out without waking him. I crawled out of the bed as carefully as I could but it proved to be a harder task than I thought. Klaus and I had been spooning and our limbs were all tangled up. I quickly found, and slid into, my jeans and bra. I found my heels next but decided that I was way better off just carrying those. Finding my shirt however proved to be much more of a feat. It was simply nowhere to be seen. The fact that Klaus' room was more like an apartment didn't help. In addition to the more bedroom like section he had an en suite bathroom, a living room section that was more like an entertainment center, and a kitchenette, where he'd gotten that glass of water from last night. I felt my cheeks heat up and my face started burning at the memory. I'd disregarded it as insignificant but it turned out he'd needed it.

"You know if watching you run about my room like a headless chicken weren't so amusing I'd remind you that your search is in vain. Your shirt is in tatters, remember?" I whipped around at the sound of his voice. When had he woken up? He was sitting upright, leaning against the headboard casually. He was still under the covers too, although I think it was for my benefit since he was probably still nude.

"That's fine. I'm glad you find my desperation to escape your morning breath amusing." I cursed to myself under my breath. I did vaguely remember him tearing up my shirt. It had been very sexy at the time, very masculine. Now, however, it was just an impractical nuisance.

"Oh, how you wound me." He laughed heartily. He moved to get out of bed and I turned around instinctually. Or maybe it was out of politeness. I'm not quite sure, but he pointed out that I didn't need to nonetheless. "I'm decent."

I turned around and found that he'd just put on a pair of boxer briefs, hardly decent. He threw a black henley at my face. I considered throwing it right back at him. I didn't like the idea of me in his shirt, or rather I didn't like that I kind of liked the idea of me in his shirt. It was soft and smelled like him and was obviously a few sizes too large for me, plus Stefan would ask questions. But other than all that it's not like I had a real choice so I pulled it on.

"Leaving so soon? I'm not surprised." He'd disappeared into the bathroom but came back out a second later with advil. He threw back a few and offered me the bottle but I declined.

"Yeah, I gotta go. I'd say it's because Stefan's expecting me but I'd be lying, I just really don't like your company." I was being extra snarky but I didn't care. I had made it perfectly clear that this was only a physical thing, a one time thing even. I was not inclined to be nicer to him just because he happened to be exceedingly satisfying in bed. He narrowed his eyes knowingly, accepting the challenge I'd put forth.

"Truly? I seem to recall that you didn't mind my company yesterday. And you were in no rush to go anywhere last night. In fact you seemed much more interested in coming."

"You obviously have memory issues. You were the one begging." I almost mimicked his choruses of my name mixed with various strings of cuss words for effect. I meant to mock him but it had actually been sort of sexy the way his voice had gotten strained and husky and how he'd only managed to whisper the broken phrases pleadingly. It had sent jolts of electricity down my spine and when I bit his nipple and soothed the sting with my tongue in tiny circles…I was getting sidetracked. My brain was getting all fogged up and hazy. I had to leave.

"Hmmm," he hummed thoughtfully and moved closer to me. He began to nuzzle my neck. His stubble tickled and his lips ghosted over my pulse points, proving to be even more distracting. "We could always have at it again to prove who's right. A simple science experiment."

"Making that what, round three?" He'd started to massage the base of my neck with his mouth but made an affronted sound at my inquiry.

"Actually it'd be round four for you, round three for me." He drawled, his words coming out muffled. I inhaled deeply to steel myself against his guerrilla tactics. I shoved him away from me roughly. The clock had run out on play time. I had to leave. Hopefully the more I repeated that the quicker it'd happen.

"Right. I'll wash and give this back Monday." I promised, referring to his top. I'd have to invest in one of these though, it was really comfortable.

"Keep it." Klaus said dismissively as he disappeared into the bathroom again. He sounded a little frustrated and a little tired. Oh well, not my problem.

I nod and make my way out his room, realizing a second too late that I had no idea how to get out. I'd been too preoccupied with mauling Klaus to notice where he was taking me or how we got there. I maneuvered through the halls hastily, trying to find a staircase or an open room or something. Finally I came to a staircase leading to what appeared to be the foyer. Unfortunately for me there were two open areas on the sides of the foyer, the kitchen and the dining room, and a man who couldn't have been anyone but Klaus' father spotted me trying to make my escape. A man in what looked like an Armani suit sat across from him, fear underlying his features. I think I just interrupted a business meeting of some sort.

"Sorry to disturb you, I'm a…friend of Klaus' and I was just leaving. Would you mind directing me to the door?"

"I so wish I could say that I am doubtful that Niklaus would stoop so low to debase himself with an American but alas I remain underwhelmingly unsurprised. Off you go then." He waved me off in the general direction of the exit. How charming. It wasn't hard to see where Klaus and Kol got their manners from.

I finally made my escape and took a huge breath of air. Well, I'd be damned if I ever did that shit again. The sex had been nice, but everything before and after it I could have done without. Now all I had to do was go home and face my brother. He'd probably hate me just like mom and dad. His sweet, innocent, good little sister was not so good after all. He'd think I was a terrible person. I felt kind of terrible. I was supposed to hate Klaus. He was a self involved, temperamental jerk. His first impression of Klaus hadn't been a good one. Staying out all night and getting laid was bad enough, how would he react if I told him it was that jerk he met at the party the other night?

Strangely enough when I did get home he wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere to be found. I searched around for a note or at least something to tell me where he'd run off to but didn't find anything. I texted him to ask where he was but didn't get a reply till an hour later.

_'Oh so your phone is working now. I won't be home till late. I've got meetings with some very jet-lagged associates.'_

I rolled my eyes. He was being a big baby. I had told him I was going to a party and that I'd be with Lexi. He hadn't left me so much as a note to come home to. But I knew I wasn't being entirely fair to him either. Him having to make last minute accommodations for his work and me staying out all night like a dumb teenager were two completely different things. I supposed I deserved his snark. I texted him back asking if he needed me to run any errands. I felt like a bad sister. Maybe I could make up for it by pulling some weight around here. He needed a woman's touch anyway. I'd have to make do for now until he perked up and found himself someone. He texted me back no, that I was grounded but I didn't accept that.

I started to clean up the apartment, scrubbing, dusting, vacuuming, and wiping down every solid surface. I also made a short list of groceries and decided to spend the down time I had after that shopping. This was all to keep myself distracted because anything was better than being left alone with my thoughts. If I stopped to think then I'd have to actually consider and accept that I'd just slept with Klaus and that I was screwing up already and that Stefan was possibly super angry with me because he'd seriously just tried to ground me.

**xox**

Monday, after a long scolding from Stefan in which he ensured that he wasn't wavering on the whole 'you're grounded' thing, I was slugging through my day. I hadn't got much sleep, and the sleep I did manage to squeeze in was hardly restful. By the time I got to lunch I was just going through the motions of being a functioning human being when I picked up that Lexi was grilling Bonnie hard about something.

I shook myself out of my funk to pay better attention. Apparently the reason Bonnie was always being so flighty about hanging out with us was because she was sort of seeing someone new, but that was all Lexi was able to pry out of her before she zipped her lips shut tighter than a safe at the bank. Just as I was about to chime in on the inquisition Lexi whipped in my direction and turned her line of questioning on me.

"And you!" She snapped accusingly. "Where did you disappear to the other night? I was worried sick!" I felt momentarily disarmed.

I hadn't expected her to turn on me but it was actually pretty fair. She'd only gone to the restroom and I disappeared, completely forgetting to tell her that I was okay. It violated the buddy system for me to do that. Jeez, 20/20 hindsight was being a serious bitch right now. Klaus had been able to make me forget and maybe not care or think too much about Lexi and Stefan. I'd ditched both of them and they'd both been worried about me. He had the tendency of doing that too. He had this thing where he could just create a private little bubble meant just for the two of us. It required serious effort on her part to burst through it.

"Sorry about that. I got so distracted I forgot to text you not to wait up." She glowered at me, looking supremely peeved.

"Well, I did wait up. I searched all over for you. What had you so distracted yet so well hidden?"

"Klaus distracted me." I stated rather evasively. Not only was the guilt building up to a heavy pit in my stomach but I didn't know what I should expect if I told them. Lexi looked less peeved and more sympathetically amused. The tenseness in her shoulders dissolved along with her glare.

"Being a pain as usual?" I contemplated saying yes or making something up but I had nothing to hide. So what if I couldn't anticipate their reactions? I was a little shocked and slightly embarrassed of my behavior but I wasn't ashamed. While I did regret how I handled that night in general it's not like I regretted sleeping with him.

"Less so probably due to his lack of sobriety. We slept together."

You could have heard a pin drop with the following silence. Bonnie, who had just been relishing at Lexi's distraction and the change of topic, was now gaping at me like a fish. Lexi's eyes were dangerously close to popping out their sockets. Lexi's "details!" and Bonnie's "what?!" came at the same time in perfect sync. I debated over who to answer to first.

"I had sex with Klaus." I repeated. "It was great." I took a dainty bite of my pizza.

I didn't mind telling them we had sex but I wasn't exactly eager to get into the details of it all. What I wanted to do was talk about Bonnie's tendency to go MIA. Thankfully Lexi seemed to accept my short response. She turned her attention back to Bonnie. Unfortunately she sensed it and began to gather her books. She ditched us with some excuse about having to get to her next class early. That was a huge red flag. She most definitely did not need to get to her next class early. We had politics together next. We usually thought up new ways to waste time in order to be late to that class, god forbid either of us get there early. Something was up that she was being so secretive about her mystery guy. I'm not sure why but my interest was piqued.

I bid Lexi goodbye and started to chase after Bonnie but was stopped short by Kol. He was cutting off my path to the classroom, moving in my way every time I tried to step around him, staring down at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes and a shit eating grin on his face. Finally I rolled my eyes and ceded to whatever game it was that he wished to play. I hadn't thought through what it would be like to see Klaus in school post-sex but it didn't look like he was even here today, so I may as well practice on Kol. Plus I did have his shirt buried in the bottom of my bag somewhere. I'd washed, ironed, and folded it nicely but was very reluctant to do so. It was super comfy and smelled absolutely divine. I mean he did say I could have it and it'd be hard to part with it but I could not keep it. No.

"Someone's been naughty." Kol sing-songed matter of factly. "You know we all knew you americans are looser with your morals than common whores but I do commend you holding out for so long."

"Do you ever get cold living in your brothers shadow, Kol? Doesn't it ever bother you that he seems to be the focal point of everyones focus where your family is concerned?" he looked like I'd just told him that Santa wasn't real or some other ridiculous thing. "Do you ever get tired being more involved and interested in his life than your own?"

I'd shocked him into silence and, more importantly, immobility, allowing me to stride right past him and into my next class where I immediately took my seat next to Bonnie. She was texting furiously at her phone, glaring so hard at the screen that I could have sworn the sleek white screen was about to shatter any second. She seemed startled by my presence when I sat down and looked up at me like she was momentarily disoriented but mumbled something under her breath and slipped her phone in her bag.

"So, are you embarrassed of him or embarrassed of us?" I looked down my nose at her dauntingly, an attempt to get at least a sliver of information out of her.

"Is both an acceptable answer?" Bonnie grumbled. Her shoulders were sagged and she looked tired all of a sudden. I felt bad. She was obviously keeping it secret for a reason. It was rude of me to push her like this. She'd spill the beans in due time, when she was ready.

"Sorry, I'll let it drop."

"No, no. I'm sorry too, for being so grumpy and tight-lipped. Truth is I just feel like the whole situation is very sticky and precarious and…ugh." She gripped at her hair frustratedly. "You know I don't even really know how he feels about it? I mean I know he'd be totally fine with it but we've never explicitly talked about it. And constantly thinking about everything is so stressful."

"Bon, you know you can unload on me anytime, I practically survive off of stress. Besides, if you say you know he'd be fine with it but you want to talk about it then why don't you guys just talk about it?"

"Because he's really easygoing—_we're_ really easygoing together. I don't know." Just as I was about to reply Klaus strode into the class, his face like lightning. He looked as though he could kill. I stood in his path and placed my hand flat on his chest to stop him. He was looking at me but it was tough to tell if he could actually see me, if that makes any sense. His jaw was flexing almost uncontrollably and I could feel that his breathing was heavy. He wasn't just pissy or in one of his moods; he was _livid_.

"Is everything alright?" I was genuinely worried about him but he just grimaced at me in what I think was meant to be a dry smirk. He was usually quite good at those.

"Just peachy, love." He pushed past me without so much as another glance. I took my seat next to Bonnie.

I was curious as to what was wrong with him but it was none of my business. I'd just return his shirt to him after class and wash my hands of the whole thing. I'd gotten him out of my system already. No need to dwell. Right? I was acutely aware of Bonnie staring me down. She was chewing at her lip like she wanted to say something but before she could class began. Today seemed to be giving a whole new meaning to the whole 'mondays suck' trope. Bon scrambled out of the room the moment we were dismissed, killing any intention I had of continuing our conversation before Klaus had come in. It was a shame too, I'd gotten the feeling that she'd actually wanted to talk for the first time in a while. I thought about going after her but my phone trilled with a new message, from her, promising that we could meet up for coffee and some studying later. We did have tests coming up and getting out the house would be a big bonus. Stefan was intent on the grounding but surely he couldn't protest a study session. I texted her back a quick 'sure' but when Klaus tried to breeze past me I tossed my phone in my bag to grab him by the shoulder, forcing him to stop and turn around. The thunder in his eyes had far from dissipated but he stayed put regardless. I dug the henley out from my bag and presented it to him. While every other part of him remained tense the storm in his eyes settled by a fraction and was replaced by light confusion and mild amusement.

I had every intention of just shoving the shirt towards him and leaving. Very simple, very quick. But instead he caught me before I could walk away, pushing me against the wall and smashing, literally smashing, his lips against mine. It was violent, rough, and a few other things that I can't quite put my finger on. His lips were moving so hard against mine that I thought there might even be bruising when he pulled away, which he didn't until I slapped him. It was like the thought that we, as humans, needed air at some point hadn't even occurred to him. I risked looking up at him in the hopes he'd look at least a little better but had no such luck, he looked just as awful as before.

"Bad day?"

"From hell." A ghost of a smirk whisked across his face for the briefest moment. I smiled.

"You should feel right at home then." I thrust the shirt at his chest, forcing him to hold it. "Feel any better now that you've mauled my face?"

"That's relative." His tone was gruff. He sounded how he looked. "What's this?"

For a split second I wondered if he'd actually been drunk enough to forget and that I was too tipsy to notice but I quickly dispelled the thought. He'd been very lucid the night of and the morning after. If I remembered properly we even had a brief verbal spar. Maybe he was confused because he'd said I could just keep it but I _did_ tell him I'd wash and return it to him.

"The top you let me borrow after you destroyed mine."

"I know but—" he shook his head. "Alright. You baffle me, Caroline Forbes."

"Normally I'd love to offer to explain, but for you I think I'll make an exception."

"Normally I don't do investment. I think I'll make an exception." He winked down at me. "You're the second woman to ever catch my attention enough for that."

"Second?" I was intrigued. And competitive. "Normally I'm second to none."

Klaus' eyes glinted, feral and dangerously mischievous. For a second I thought he might go in for another kiss because if he didn't I wasn't sure I could stop myself from doing it. Thankfully, or unfortunately - I couldn't decide just yet, Kol strode towards us looking grave, his usual demeanor nowhere in sight. He barely spared me a glance as he muttered something to Klaus, who replied in a hushed tone. Kol moved away from us and disappeared into a town car. Klaus turned back to face me. He gave me a look that was something along the lines of 'we're not done here' and went off in the same direction his brother had gone. With Klaus out of proximity I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding and the fog in my mind dissipated allowing me to think a little more clearly. Which meant I realized I had just done some heavy flirting with Klaus, when I was supposed to be relishing that I'd cleared the pipes, gotten him out of my system, was over it, whatever.

By the time I got home I'd completely spaced on meeting Bonnie for a study date and had to rush through changing, gathering my things, and explaining where I was going to Stefan. My thoughts were still muddled when I reached the park where Bonnie had told me to meet her. It was a nice day out, despite how hard it had been raining when I was on my way home. But the sun in the sky and divine smell of rain and the outdoors did nothing to brighten the decidedly off-kilter day I, and everyone else for that matter, seemed to be having. However late, I found Bonnie waiting for me. She'd already laid out a nice comforter to keep us off the wet grass. She didn't even look peeved that I was late though, she looked like she'd enjoyed the alone time to gather her thoughts, lucky bitch. I haven't had enough time to gather my thoughts, not that I think all the time in the world would even help.

"I don't know what it says about me that I want to tell you first and not Lexi even though I have known her longer and been friends with her longer etcetera but it's just that I think you'd understand better or know better than she would, especially after what you told us today at break, which I still will grill you about and give you grief for, by the way. It's just I'd like to get this huge damn weight off my shoulders first." She was babbling uncontrollably and I would have laughed if I wasn't so interested in her getting to the point. I didn't want to risk a detour should she lose her courage. "I've got a boyfriend."

"As we've all gathered." I nodded to prompt her to continue. Stating the obvious was a fairly good start.

"It's a Mikaelson. It's Kol." she was babbling again. It was a short sentence but she'd said it so fast that I couldn't be sure I heard her properly, and if I had heard her properly then I really hoped she'd tell me I was wrong and needed to get my ears checked.

"Come again?" Bonnie had covered her face with her hands but peeked an eye out at my response.

"I'm dating Kol." she bit her lip trying to gauge my reaction, but I was going to need more details before I'd give her anything. "It's new for him and for me too I suppose. My only other boyfriend was in high school and we had been long term but he moved away a few months ago. But Kol is just…his whole family is just, you know? And as far as I know I'm his first girlfriend. I thought it'd just be a fling, like a filler chapter to help me get over my ex but he's…really great, Caroline. Once you get past the whole Kol thing, he's so great."

"So, just allow me to catch up here. You, Bonnie Sheila Bennett, are in a committed monogamous relationship with Kol Mikaelson, Klaus' younger brother, and deemed me worthy to be the first and possibly only person to know because I slept with Klaus?"

"Yes…" she hung on the 's' and trailed off. But when I didn't say anything else she spoke up again. "He's great, I promise. He's romantic, sensitive, attentive, understanding, _and_ he was the first to commit. He told me I didn't have to but that I was the only one he was interested in. Although he hadn't exactly been too happy about it…now that I think of it I think it made him a little cranky that he was focused on me for a while there, whatever."

"In that case I'm happy for you, Bon. Are you happy?"

"In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. He makes me happy but keeping it mum has been hard on me."

"Then why are you doing it?"

"Because I just want to tread lightly here. You're new to these people but I'm damn sure not. One must use caution when dealing with _any_ of the Mikaelson's. With both business and pleasure."

That was definitely food for thought. I didn't know what to say to that, though. Because she was right. She'd probably known this family for a while. They lived around the same area and had probably crossed paths in school or at events. There are certainly people I'd advise Bonnie to proceed with caution around if she were on my turf, it would seem that here it was the Mikaelson clan. But how could an entire family be poison? Most families I knew only had one or two bad seeds.

"How many of them are there?" Bonnie shrugged at my question and started to count on her fingers.

"Finn, Elijah, Klaus, Rebekah, and Kol. But Finn moved and cut all ties. There was another one, Henrik, but he's very young. He's away at some prestigious boarding school." Bonnie took a pause. "But Klaus, Kol, and Rebekah are the closest of the lot. I'm just a little apprehensive because when you're involved with one, you're in bed with them all. I just don't know what'd happen if I tell him we can go public and then his family just ends up hating me. Why waste a heartache?"

Damn. That was a grand total of six children. It had to be heavy on his parents. I wondered if they were even still together. Or if they were, were they like my parents? That is to say were they only together for the sake of appearances? My parents had loved each other once upon a time. It feels like it was a lifetime ago that we were a happy, functional, normal family but really it wasn't so long ago. Generally when families fall apart the parents like to reassure the children that it isn't their fault but in our case there was always that unspoken truth that I really had been the one to tear my family apart. My only comfort, other than partying the pain away, had been that I could only take so much of the credit. Stefan, who proved to be the glue, had moved away and practically forgotten about us, my parents both had high strung jobs and could hardly pay attention to us, much less to each other, and then…there was Damon. Even just thinking about him now I felt my heart clench painfully. If I dug past the pain of the memories I could get a clear view of everything. His ice blue eyes, pale skin, dark locks, cocky smirk, and asshole tendencies, all of it was clear as day. His focus was on Stefan and me — always. He'd persuade Stefan to come home as frequently as possible. He'd sober me up and force me to get my shit together when it mattered. He was a fucking asshole, and sometimes an awful person, but no one could ever accuse him of not loving us.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." Bonnie looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "A bond formed by choice is stronger than a bond forced by blood. I'm sure when it really comes down to it Kol is with you, regardless of whether or not they hate you. Which they wont by the way."

"Thanks Caroline. That actually makes me feel better. Now enough about my horrible drama. Spill!"

I rolled my eyes and delved into everything to catch her up to speed. I tried to tell her about the constant flirtations but she already knew all that. Klaus wasn't exactly discreet with his advances in public. So instead I told her about the party that she'd ditched in favor of hanging out with Kol. But it turns out she was there, just in Kol's room the whole it was nice to talk about it, hearing it out loud was weird for me. Bonnie may feel better having let her Mikaelson cat out the bag but I had the overwhelming urge to stuff mine back in with a brick, tie it up, and throw it into the ocean.


End file.
